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By Robert Perry Shepherd 

FRONT RANK TEACHER TRAINING SERIES 



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VOL. IV.-ADVANCED STANDARD COURSE 


CHRISTIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
SAINT LOUIS. MISSOURI 

















RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY 

IN 

THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


BY ROBERT PERRY SHEPHERD 

AUTHOR OF 

PYSCHOLOGY IN RELIGIOUS CULTURE 
TURGOT AND THE SIX EDICTS 


ADVANCED TEACHER-TRAINING COURSE 
VOLUME IV. 


ST. LOUIS. MO. 

CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 


1911 


Copyright, 1911, by 

CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING CO, 

St. Louis, Mo. 



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PREFACE 

This book is designed more to stimulate interest in the art 
of pedagogy applied to tbe teaching of religion than to im¬ 
part technical information in the science of pedagogy. There 
is no dearth of books for teachers in academic schools. There 
is a dearth of books on teaching personal religion. Within 
its limits, this handbook is designed to be of use in homes 
and Sunday Schools as well as in colleges and seminaries 
where the educational obligation of college men and women 
and of seminary graduates is being more largely recognized. 

Leaders of classes are advised to use the outlines, sug¬ 
gested in the Appendix, or to make better ones. The class 
should meet for study, not for recitation, and after a chapter 
has been carefully studied, assign to each student two or 
more of the Suggestions and Questions given at the end of 
the chapter. As far as possible have written answers to these 
questions handed in at the beginning of the next class ses¬ 
sion. The references by number in parentheses are to the 
paragraph in which the answer or topic may be found. 

That this booklet may contribute even slightly to a higher 
appreciation of the stewardship of parenthood and of Sunday- 
School teaching is the prayerful hope of the author. 

- St. Louis, February 28, 1911. 



CHAPTER OUTLINE. I. 






Teaching Personal Religion. 

I. Enlarging Interest. (1) 

1. Religious faith creates hunger for knowledge. (2) 

2. Personality the source and secret of religious teach¬ 

ing. (3) 

3. Methods of teaching adapted to changed purpose. (4) 

II. The Graded Sunday School. 

1. Related to art of teaching religion. (5) 

2. Success determined by prepared and graded teach¬ 

ers. (6) 

3. Related to speedy evangelization of the world. (6) 

III. Neglected Sources of Inspiration and Instruction. 

1. The Gospel of Matthew. (7) 

a. A study of Christ’s life practice. 

b. The practice of Christ’s teaching life. 

2. The dining-table. (8) 

a. Teaching analogies. 

b. Found in selection, preparation, and service of 

food. 

c. Contrast between nourishment and nurture. A 

teaching privilege. (9) 

d. Larger scope of teacher’s responsibilities. (10) 

IV. Social Obligations of Teachers. (11) 

1. The new society in Christ. 

2. Right actions in social relations. 

V. The New Vision. (12) 

1. Teaching. 

2. Guiding to right actions. 


4 


THE NEW SCIENCE 

CHAPTER 1. 

Introductory. Principles and Suggestions 

1. The science of teaching personal religion is the newest 
of all sciences. Any real science of teaching is only a little 
more than a century old. “Ph. D.’s are as thick as black¬ 
berries in July, but real teachers are as scarce as they were 
2,000 years ago,” said a Princeton University professor re¬ 
cently. True as this may be to existing facts, it is also 
true that there has never been so widespread and general 
interest in both the science and the art of teaching as there 
is at the close of the first decade of this century. 

2. Furthermore, deplorable from every standpoint as is 
the popular ignorance of Bible facts, a great army of re¬ 
ligious teachers throughout the country have wakened to the 
stubborn truth that the first and fundamental need of all 
men is for a vital, personal religious faith. To teach re¬ 
ligion, the Christian religion, is the great mission of the Sun¬ 
day-school. That religious faith craves Bible knowledge is 
true. That this faith is created by, and dependent on, the 
extent of Bible information is obviously untrue. Biblical schol¬ 
arship and religious faith are not synonymous terms. Many 
earnest and intense exploiters of teacher training have paid 
a high price to learn this patent fact. 

3. The art of teaching the Bible is based upon the identical 
pedagogical principles which govern all other academic} in¬ 
struction. But the art of teaching religion aims not prima¬ 
rily at knowledge, but at character. Character is born of 
impression, not of information. Creative ideals, which are 
the warp and woof of the fabric of character, come into being 
through living contact of life with life. With these living 
ideals definitely planted, with vital impressions imparted and 
deepened by expression in deeds or words, the search for 
knowledge becomes a vital and necessary consequent. 

4. These conditions are calling into being the new science 
of religious education. Religious pedagogy rests upon the 
ixed and invariable laws of mind, even as does academic 
pedagogy. But when the prime object of the teaching pro- 

5 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


cess is Christian character, life! conformed to the image of 
Jesus Christ, methods of teaching must be radically different 
from those which look merely to imparting information or 
giving intellectual instruction. 

5. The modern graded Sunday School is the first conspicu¬ 
ous step in establishing the new art of religious education. 
In its simplest statement the graded Sunday School is merely 
an effort to conform intelligently the songs and prayers of 
worship and the lessons for impressions and instruction to 
the grades the Creator has fixed in the development of mind 
from infancy, childhood, youth and adolescence to fullest and 
ripest maturity. 

6. The success of the whole system of the graded school 
depends upon the willingness of volunteer teachers in the 
Sunday School to grade themselves, to specialize as teachers, 
to make themselves as familiar as circumstances will per¬ 
mit with the science and art of teaching religion to some one 
grade of mental life. Graded lessons without graded teachers 
cannot fulfill their purpose. With graded lessons and graded 
teachers, the grading of pupils will follow naturally and in¬ 
evitably. When this consummation is achieved there will be 
in process of actual operation the most perfect system of sci¬ 
entific and efficient teaching of religion which the world has 
ever seen. With the World’s Sunday School Association fi¬ 
nanced adequately to introduce the best of Sunday School 
methods into all mission stations and fields of earth, the 
evangelization of the world is brought vastly closer to actual 
accomplishment. 

How Teac’hers May Study the Art of Teaching. 

7. Two opportunities for self-instruction in the funda¬ 
mentals of religious teaching are within the reach of every 
teacher. First and most important of all, is the Gospel as 
written by Matthew. In this book is set forth both the sub¬ 
ject matter taught and the methods of teaching practiced by 
the perfect Teacher of religion. There will never be a more 
perfect guide to religious pedagogy than this Gospel is. 

8. The second of these opportunities, most familiar and 
most suggestive, is the dining table. Three times each day 
most of our human family gathers at table to eat food for the 
nourishment of the body. The many and varied processes by 
which articles of food are selected, prepared, served, eaten 

6 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


and made to do food work in the body are fruitful themes 
for observation and reflection by teachers. The results of 
careful or of careless selection, of skillful or of ignorant 
cooking and seasoning, of gracious or slovenly service by 
which the viands are made delectable or fairly nauseous, of 
wise or unwise eating, of natural or abnormal appetite—all 
these are perfect analogies to the science and art of teach¬ 
ing. Ideas and ideals are to the soul or mind what food and 
drink are to the body. What nourishment is to the body, 
nurture is to the soul. Just as food has to be adapted in sub¬ 
stance, preparation and service to the capacities and capa¬ 
bilities of the body to be nourished, so also does the nurture 
of the soul have need to be most carefully chosen, prepared, 
served and exercised. The results of right and wrong eat¬ 
ing are not so obvious and permanent as are the results of 
right an(J wrong thinking, feeling and willing.* The wise 
spiritual physician faces a world of more' permanent spiritual 
cripples and dwarfs and dyspeptics than does the doctor of 
medicine as he moves about from one sick body to another. 

9. In at least one important particular the analogy be¬ 
tween physical nourishment and spiritual nurture is hope¬ 
lessly inadequate. It not infrequently happens that the one 
who cooks, prepares and serves food, loses in the process 
the keen zest of appetite, and is robbed in part of the joy 
of partaking of it. The teacher, on the contrary, who with 
loving forethought and sympathetic insight selects, adapts, 
presents and exercises soul-nurture for his pupils grows and 
develops more than do those for whom the truth is thus 
prepared. This, indeed, is the mark of God’s approval of the 
work. This fact, more than all else besides, encourages any 
thoughtful mind to undertake the really appalling responsi¬ 
bility of standing sponsor for the spiritual culture of a soul. 
But, since the teacher in the act of honest teaching grows 
more than do those taught, the consecrated teacher will 
bring to the service of the Teacher whatever of truth and 
skill he has. He will do this with the same simple trust as 
did the boy who handed his crackers and dried fish to the 
Teacher and saw them transformed by Him, before his own 
eyes, into an iincreasing sufficiency to make a feast for vast 
multitudes, and more remaining for himself when all were 
fed than he first gave. 

♦Right and Wrong Thinking and Their Results. Arthur M. Crane. 

7 



RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 

10. In another important, though less prominent particu¬ 
lar, analogy between food and truth breaks down. When 
once the food is eaten the responsibility of him who selects, 
prepares and serves is ended. In the case of the teacher, 
the selection, preparation and presentation of the truth is 
but an uncompleted part of the process of teaching. Ideas, 
not words, are the nurture of the soul. And ideas are not 
taught till they are firmly fixed as working possessions of 
the soul taught. Neither teacher nor pupil can know if the 
impressions made, the truths taught, are such working pos¬ 
sessions of the soul .until they have found concrete expres¬ 
sion in deeds and words, fixed factors in the living experience 
of the pupil taught. 

11. There is great need, therefore, for active direction, by 
teachers of religion, of the lives of pupils entrusted to their 
charge. It is said that knowledge which does not issue in 
something socially useful is not real knowledge. Certain it 
is that religion, in child or man, which does not issue in life 
socially useful is not a part of the religion of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. He came to create a new society in mankind of 
which he is the sole and sufficient head. To bring the little 
and the larger ones, the child and wise philosopher into com¬ 
panionship with himself and God is the avowed purpose of 
his reign in human hearts. 

Hand-work, Home-work, Life-work, right action in all re¬ 
lationships of life—this is the obvious purpose and aim of 
the religion of Jesus. Such must be the first and final aim of 
everyone who enlists in the great army of teachers of the 
Living Word. 

12. That teachers may catch a new vision of themselves, 
their pupils, their tasks, their opportunities and their re¬ 
wards is the purpose of the following chapters of this book. 
Again and again, by explicit statement and by implicit sug¬ 
gestion, will two facts be urged: First. The teaching of re¬ 
ligion consists in taking one living idea at a time from the 
mind of the teacher and so planting it in the mind of the 
pupil that it will grow into eternal life. Second. The prime 
objective of religious teaching is to secure right action before 
God and man. 

Suggestions and Questions. 

Have brief reports by different members of the class on 
the Educational principles of Froebel, Pestalozzi, Herbart and 

8 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Horace Mann. “History of Pedagogy,” by Compayre, is a 
good reference book. 

Wbat may account for the tide of interest in teaching 
-which is rising in the modern church? (2.) 

What is the chief aim of Sunday School teaching? (3.) 

Explain the relative importance of graded lessons, graded 
teachers and graded pupils to efficient religious teaching. 
(5-6.) 

Why is the Gospel of Matthew called a valuable handbook 
of religious pedagogy? (7.) 

Assign for study and brief report the topics: Jesus’ teach¬ 
ing concerning God; concerning man and his individual re¬ 
lations to God; concerning man and his social relations; 
Jesus’ use of the story; of the parable; of questions; of inci¬ 
dent; of object illustration, and of indirect address, as meth¬ 
ods of teaching religious truth. 

Point out definite analogies between nourishment and nur¬ 
ture. (8.) 

What valuable lesson for teachers is taught by the miracle 
of “Feeding the Multitude?” (9.) 

How far may a teacher expect Christ to add his blessing 
to bad teaching? How far may a teacher count confidently 
on the active co-operation of Christ in the work of teaching? 
When may a Sunday School teacher’s teaching be said to be 
completed as a fixed process? (10.) 

How is handwork related to religious education? (11.) 

Define religious teaching. (12.) 

How far is the Sunday School teacher properly responsible 
for the creation of right habits in the pupils? 


9 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 2. 


Definitions. 

I. The Whole Man To Be Educated. (13) 

1. Mind for mastership. 

2. Body for service. 

II. The Importance of the Art of Education. (14) 

III. Inadequate Definitions. 

1. To cause another to learn. (15) 

2. To cause another to know. (16) 

IV. Adequate Definitions Imply, 

1. Education. (17) 

2. Processes. (17) 

3. Wise guidance from where pupil is unto truth. (18) 

V. Teaching, a Social Process. 

1. Two mutually active minds. (19) 

2. Intelligent guidance by active teacher to the learn¬ 

ing mind. (19) 

VI. The Teacher Must Know—- 

1. Pedagogical psychology. (20) 

2. Religious pedagogy. (20) 

3. The process by which living ideas are trans¬ 

planted. (20) 



10 


CHAPTER^. 

“If ye abide—ye shall know the truth and the truth shall 
make you free.” 


Definitions of Teaching 

13. Truth—living, vital truth—is to the soul what whole¬ 
some food is to the body. Proper nourishment of the body 
and wise nurture of the mind are indispensable conditions of 
“going on unto perfection.” The mind must be educated for 
its proper mastership. The body must be disciplined to re¬ 
spond to the intelligent mastery] of the mind. These con¬ 
stitute a finished education, the climax of culture. 

14. A teacher is one who teaches. Theories of teaching 
constitute the Science of Pedagogy. Actual practice of the 
art of teaching is Applied Pedagogy. A working knowledge 
of theories must necessarily precede intelligent practice of 
any art. This is especially true with respect to teaching re¬ 
ligion. Landon happily points out this truth in the following 
words: “Neglect of the art of education simply means that 
the teacher must, at best, blunder his way to success, labo¬ 
riously correct his errors by the failure or mischief produced, 
and slowly discover things for himself which others have dis¬ 
covered before him. Why should we tread the thorny path 
of error, or traverse the dreary swamps of failure, when a 
safer, pleasanter, and shorter path has been pointed out to 
us by those who have traveled the road before us?” 

15. An old definition of teaching was, “to teach is to 
cause another to learn.” This is inadequate, because it is 
possible for one to cause another to learn while the one is 
not at all practicing the art of teaching. When education 
is a resultant of “effort,” when the processes ofl, education 
are undertaken and continued by conscious act of the pupil’s 
will, that effort may be inspired by fear, emulation, desire 
to please or to excel, even while the supposed teacher is 
really teaching nothing, a total stranger to both science and 
art of teaching. 

16. A later definition of teaching (Hart’s), adopted by Trum¬ 
bull, is a little more adequate, but open to the same criti¬ 
cism. This is, “To teach is to cause another to know.” A 

11 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


larger definiteness of result is implied by this description, 
but it leaves the question of the teacher’s active process of 
teaching wholly undetermined. 

A comprehensive idea of what teaching really is may be 
discovered by working from the foundation to the desired 
result, and describing adequately the essential intervening 
process. 

17. Education is the systematic development and cultiva¬ 
tion of the mind and other natural powers. The processes 
of education are inculcation, experience, impression and ex¬ 
pression. The untrained and unskilled pupil, like the un¬ 
trained and unskilled teacher, is wholly ignorant of the reality 
of mental and spiritual culture, and of the vital nature of 
the processes of education. 

18. Between the condition or state of ignorance and that 
of intelligence are the four pathways—the processes of ed¬ 
ucation just mentioned. The mind cannot go along these 
four paths simultaneously; neither can all the powers of the 
mind grow and develop at the same time and in the same 
degree. The teacher is the pupil’s guide on this mental 
journey. At the beginning of the way the pupil is in the 
darkness of. ignorance and inexperience, dead to all that 
is the teacher’s real life. The teacher is alive, a life made 
living by knowledge of that Truth which sets life free. He 
is God’s living agent to guide the pupil out of death into 
life. 

19. Teaching is, plainly, a social process. It implies two 
mutually active minds; a pupil being taught what the teacher 
teaches. If the pupil is learning what the teacher is not 
teaching, the teacher has ceased to be that pupil’s guide. 
If the pupil is not learning what the teacher thinks he is 
teaching, the teacher has ceased to guide that pupil. Only 
when the mind of the teacher is properly pursuing some one 
of the four processes of education, and some one or] more 
powers of the pupil’s mind is growing or developing by that 
process, can it be said with any propriety that the teacher 
is teaching the pupil who is learning. 

20. Intelligent practice of the art of teaching clearly im¬ 
plies at least three kinds of very essential and vital knowl¬ 
edge. A knowledge of the natural powers of the mind and 
the modes of the growth and development of each of these 
powers—pedagogical psychology; an understanding and 

12 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


skillful use of each of the four processes of education by which 
culture is attained—religious pedagogy; and a clear, definite 
and adequate knowledge of the living Truth to be adapted 
to the comprehension of the mind to be taught—Christian 
scholarship. In the light of these obvious truths, the defini¬ 
tion of teaching given by Drawbridge has its proper value. 
“Teaching is taking one living idea at a time from one’s own 
mind and planting it so that it will grow in the mind of an¬ 
other.” 


Suggestions and Questions. 

How far, in your judgment, is Jesus’ expression in John 
14:6 fundamental in the art of religious teaching? (13.) 

State, in your own words, what constitutes a finished ed¬ 
ucation. (13.) 

Did anyone not a teacher ever cause you to learn? How? 
(15.) 

How may you, without teaching, cause your pupils to 
learn? (15.) 

In what way may one, without teaching anything, cause 
another to know? (16.) 

Consult at least two different dictionaries and choose from 
them, or make for yourself a good working definition of ed¬ 
ucation. (17.) 

Describe and illustrate each of the four processes of edu¬ 
cation. (17.) 

Who have been your best human guides from out of the 
ignorance and inexperience of infancy to your present at¬ 
tainment? Explain why their guidance has proved to be the 
best for you. (18.) 

How many valid answers can you give to the query, When 
is a teacher not a teacher? (19.) 

Name and describe the three kinds of knowledge a teacher 
must have for intelligent and efficient teaching. (20.) 

Describe teaching. (20.) 


13 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 3. 

Nurture. 

I. Contrast With Nourishment. 

1. (Difference in physical and mental growth. (21) 

2. Nurture for present need. (22) 

3. Privileges overbalance privations. (23) 

4. The larger parenthood. (24) 

II. Teaching Requirements. 

1. Character. (25) 

2. Skill. (25) 

3. Scholarship. (25) 

III. The Elements of Education. 

1. Time element. (27) 

2. Book element. (27) 

3. Association element. (27) 

4. Divine example. (27) 

IV. Christ the Key. 

1. Self-knowledge. (28) 

2. Self-reverence. (28) 

3. Self-control. (28) 

V. Urgency of the Modern Demand for Skilled Teaching. (29) 

1. World need. (29) 

2. Compensations. (29) 


14 


CHAPTER 3. 


Principles of Soul-Nurture 

21. Nurture is to the mind-life what food is to physical 
existence. One phase, at least, of inner growth is sharply 
different, however, from that of the body. Like every grow¬ 
ing object in nature, the body has a definite type to which 
it will conform, and a fixed standard of maturity where growth 
will end and decay begin. The mind is not so. Its growth 
is marked by variety, diversity, versatility and indefinite pos¬ 
sibility. None can say when the mind has reached ma¬ 
turity or attained' full power. If youth fixes the habit of 
using the mind, taxing it by proper exercise and supplying 
it with all needed elements of nurture, and avoids abuse 
and disuse of the mental powers, senility may be escaped, 
regardless of the physical infirmities of age. 

22. To attempt to feed a boy for next year is folly. He 
is hungry today. Feed him properly for today and next 
year’s food will be taken care of for next year’s growth. 
The tendency is strong to attempt to force soul-nurture into 
the life contrary to the needs and requirements of the pres¬ 
ent. Because of the wider experience and the accepted moral 
standards of maturity, religious teachers most often thwart 
their dearest purposes by trying to feed the soul for what 
if is going to be later, without regard to its present hunger 
and thirst. Modern religious pedagogy is sharply different 
at this point from past principles and methods. 

23. It is, primarily, a great pedagogical problem which con¬ 
fronts both parent-teacher and teacher-parent. The mind must 
learn. It will learn. How to teach it what it ought most 
to learn at any given stage of unfoldment is the supreme 
question before intelligent parenthood and affectionate teacher. 
To feed the mind for its present needs so that it may most 
fully unfold to present possibilities is the continuous task 
to which those who call children into being and those who 
assume to be teachers of other’s children must give them¬ 
selves. It is a worthy task, worthy the full devotion of 
a life time. Preparation for 1 it has severe exactions, but it 
has compensation beyond that which can be won in any 
other way. Preparation for service such ja,§ this strengthens 


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15 , 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


character, clarifies and confirms faith, broadens and quickens 
human sympathy, shapes higher moral and ethical standards, 
fixes the will in altruistic toil, makes conscience more sen¬ 
sitive and sensible, creates moral sense of responsibility, and 
brings one closer to the source of all life. Further than 
this, the devotion of life to preparation for religious teach¬ 
ing of others opens wide the doorway which leads to use¬ 
fulness, inspires confidence, commands respect, wins love and 
multiplies friendship manifold. Truly, the privileges of parent 
and teacher overbalance privations incident to most careful 
preparation for intelligent fidelity in the sacred steward¬ 

ship. 

24. Training for teaching is, therefore, a far more sig¬ 

nificant task than it has sometimes seemed. The mother 
is the universal teacher. Next to her in teaching power 
and privilege is the father. Every parent ought to know 
all that the teacher must know. Parent and teacher to¬ 

gether share the holiest and most sacred task the Creator 
has entrusted to mankind. The physical side of parentage 
is the least of its responsibility. The nurture of life from 
birth till self-control is established in the mature man, the 
culture of life from the establishment of self-control till 
the last human problem is cut short by death is such a 

task as angels may envy, but may never perform. The 

church of today must sit down beside the church of to¬ 
morrow while they grow up together in Christ. 

25. Effective teaching, then, demands from the teacher, 
character, scholarship and skill. The first must be devel¬ 
oped. Character imparts authority to the teaching. The sec¬ 
ond must be acquired by instruction. Knowledge imparts 
power. The third must bo achieved by practice. Skill im¬ 
parts ability. Character grows out of relationship with God. 
Knowledge grows out of relationship with truth. Skill grows 
out of the use of character and scholarship. 

26. Let it again be noted that the knowledge which ef¬ 
fective teaching demands is of three distinct kinds: Knowl¬ 
edge of the present state and growth-conditions of the 
mind to be nurtured or cultivated; knowledge of the ele¬ 
ments of soul-food, and of the changes which must be wrought 
in the raw material of vital truth to adapt it to the mind 
to be taught; and knowledge of the processes by which truth 
may be so presented to the mind as to be appropriated by 

16 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


it, assimilated, and wrought into the very fibre of its being. 

27. There are three well-defined elements of education, and 
these are especially significant in religious education. There 
is the “time” element, required for the mind to appropriate 
truth, assimilate it by uniting and articulating it with other 
ideas already in the mind, and energize it by translating 
it into action; the “book” element, by which the mind is 
brought face to face with truths out of the historic past 
and living present; and the “association” element, by which 
the mind receives impressions in its feeling-world and ab¬ 
sorbs incentives and motives in the world of the will. In 
religious education it is impossible) to say which of these 
elements may be the more important, but Jesus saw fit to 
associate chosen men with himself, that out of vital contact 
with him there might issue the best possible equipment for 
their usefulness. 

28. “Self-knowledge, self-reverence and self-control—these 
three alone lead on to sovereign power.” These are a fit¬ 
ting and proper* objective of religious education. And the 
Christian teacher of the Christian religion has unexcelled 
advantage over every other teacher of any other subject- 
matter. In giving to the children of men the Son of his 
love, God has given to the Christian the only key to self- 
knowledge which the world possesses. Philosophy, science 
and art are mute before the mystery of the purpose of being. 
In Christ alone may child and man find knowledge of what 
his own self is and what its purpose is. Without Christ 
there is no ground or basis for self-reverence, but when 
men look upon him and see in him revealed God’s estimate 
of the man Christ came to save, he cannot withhold reverence 
for that for which God withheld not his only Son. And 
in the control and direction of energy to the purposes of 
God, Christ Jesus is the only exemplar. That men might 
share his will, Christ sends the Spirit of God! into the lifo 
of all who obey him and become sons of God by faith in 
him. The final element of the fruit of the Spirit in man 
is self-control. 

29. Religious pedagogy is the art of teaching religion. 
What religion is and how to live it is the present need 
of untaught man. Never, in the history of the race, has 
there been such world-wide demand for teachers who will 
“do their utmost to show themselves true to God, work- 

17 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


men having no reason to be ashamed, accurate in delivering 
the Message of Truth/’ (1 Timothy 2:15.) Millions of 
children and youtns in America are growing up in paganism 
for lack of teachers to teach the truth as it is in Jesus 
Christ. No community in America is adequately supplied 
with competent teachers o£ religion. Ministers of the gos¬ 
pel who are able to commit the truth to other men who 
shall be able to teach others also are eagerly sought and 
well paid. The wide, wide world of human sin and need 
waits for teachers who know how to teach the religion of 
Christ. The application of Sunday School methods and of 
/religious pedagogy, which is being developed almost solely 
by the Sunday. School is being furthered rapidly in all alien 
lands. There is no calling, no vocation, no kind of work 
so compensated in personal growth, friendships, social recog¬ 
nition, world-honor and divine approval as is teaching in 
the home and in the church the religion of our Lord. 


Suggestions and Questions. 

Make an outline of this chapter. 

Describe nurture. (21.) 

How does development of the mind differ from growth 
of the body? (21.) 

Illustrate from experience the folly of trying to teach chi] 
dren truth which is beyond their capacity. (22.) 

What is the difference between a parent-teacher and a 
teacher-parent? Are all parents teachers, and all teachers 
parents? Why? (23.) 

What is the fundamental pedagogical problem in religious 
teaching? (23.) 

Mention some exactions and some compensations of teacher 
training. (23.) 

Distinguish between nurture and culture. (24.) 

Why are angels incompetent to do nurture and culture 
work? (24.) 

What does teacher training comprise? (25.) 

^What sorts of knowledge does effective teaching require? 


18 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Which of the three elements of education has been most 
important to you? (27.) 

How may Christ properly be said to be the key to sovereign 
power? (28.) 

How many in your Sunday School ought now to be per¬ 
suaded to undertake a course in teacher training? Why? (29.) 

If you were permitted to remember but one sentence out 
of this chapter, which one would you most wish that ’-.o 
be? Why? 


19 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 4. 

Conditions of Preparation. 

I. The Teacher's Knowledge of Life. 

Is Faulty preparation. (30) 

2. Failure of theories. (31) 

3. The chaos of childhood. (32) 

4. The teacher must know physiology and hygiene. (33) 
II. Basis of Psychology. (34) 

1. Method. (35) 

a. Adapted to teacher’s personality. (36) 

b. Material to be taught. (37) 

c. Experience of pupil. (38) 

d. Basis of method. (39) 


20 


CHAPTER 4. 

The Teacher’s Use of Knowledge 

30. It is a common experience for a teacher to have a 
lesson carefully prepared, with intervening events, geograph¬ 
ical and historical side-lights well classified and arranged, 
with lesson points and illustrations, morals and applications 
all noted and ready for instant use, and then to get before the 
class and find that not one thing which had been prepared 
seemed to be fit or capable of being used. Riotous inattention, 
listless indifference, or rebellious disorder brought consterna¬ 
tion, bewilderment, mild anger, resentment, and final morti¬ 
fication, in which the vow was registered, “I’ll never teach 
that class again.” 

31. If the pedagog had only theoretical life with which to 
deal, pedagogical; theories might be committed to memory 
and applied with the mechanical accuracy of the multiplica¬ 
tion table. Happily, however, this sort of carpenter-shop ped¬ 
agogy is rare, and when it does appear it is quickly put to 
rout by inevitable failure in practice. God does not make life 
to fit library theories of teaching. On the contrary, all theo¬ 
ries of teaching are of value or are worthless according as 
they grow out of conditions as they are or are contrived to 
fit conditions as they are not. Hence each teacher must get 
what theories there are, which are of universal application, and 
try every theory, holding fast to that which is good. 

32. Most teachers have to deal with fewer or more children 
who were carelessly begotten, petted and pampered during 
helpless infancy, turned loose to self-control when they had 
none, ill-fed, ill-bred, untaught at home, ill-taught at school, 
wrong-taught on the streets and at play, taught to be cunning 
by unwise repression, taught deception by unreasonable and 
unreasoning restraint, savages by nature, semi-barbarous by 
culture, and civilized only by a thin veneer on the outer sur¬ 
face of their social being. This may appear to be somewhat 
overdrawn, but more honest teachers will approve it than will 
criticize it as an exaggeration. If the condition described ob¬ 
tains in communities otherwise highly civilized, it constitutes 
a severe indictment against both home and church for neg¬ 
lect of the most important obligation resting upon them. As 

21 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


a matter of fact, it will be found to be approximately the 
actual condition which multitudes of teachers must face. 

33. To grapple successfully with such a situation it is clear 
that the teacher must have some knowledge of human affairs, 
such knowledge as is commonly supposed to be wholly irrele¬ 
vant to training teachers for teaching religion. But the teacher 
must know something of the structure of the body through 
which the mind works, have some immediate knowledge of 
the functions of the tissues and organs of the body, and a 
knowledge of the care of the body. If the bewildered and 
baffled teacher could but intelligently get behind the surface 
of things and know the “moving why” of the turbulence and 
disorder which confront her, some knowledge of why part of 
the class are stupid and inert while others are reveling in 
excess of energy, she would know clearly why her well-laid 
plans and carefully prepared lesson could not be made to fit 
the occasion. Also she would know just what to do to stim¬ 
ulate the dullard and to direct the energy of the active. 

34. It is upon a basis of knowledge of the human body that 
psychology, the knowledge of the mind, must build. Mental 
operations are in no small degree dependent upon the nerves 
and muscles of the body. Psychological laws must be made 
and construed to fit physical conditions. It must be, there¬ 
fore, that the laws of the mind are as varied as the individual 
conditions which the teacher must confront and master cr be 
mastered by them. With the laws of mental operations dis¬ 
covered and stated, it is possible to develop principles of teach¬ 
ing which constitute the science of pedagogy. Upon these 
principles the teacher may proceed to discover and apply 
methods of teaching which constitute the art of pedagogy. 
These go back to individual physical and mental conditions. 

35. Method is merely a way of doing something. It has 
been aptly described as the expression of ability. No two per¬ 
sons have precisely the same way of doing things, and the 
same person will often do things in different ways. None but 
the hopelessly mechanical teacher will ever copy blindly an¬ 
other’s methods. To do this is an open confession of inabili- 
ity and incompetence for the task. It is apparent, then, that 
methods of teaching must vary in at least three different ways 
—to conform to the teacher’s character and capability; the 

22 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


nature of the material to be taught; and the degree of culture 
and capacity of the pupil or student. 

36. Above all other considerations, the teacher of religion 
must be genuine, sincere, and transparently honest. Child¬ 
hood could not possibly describe the intuition by which it 
detects the artificial and insincere, but it shows it. What the 
teacher is religiously, is of fundamental, first and final im¬ 
portance in determining ability to teach. With this given, 
other qualifications may be acquired. Without this, other 
qualifications are valueless. The teacher’s methods must be 
adapted primarily to the teacher. The method must be an 
outgrowth of the character, just as the blossom is the out¬ 
growth of the bud. The teaching art must fit the teacher 
with the simple naturalness of the conversational tone of 
voice, the fit of clothing, greeting of friends, or talking with 
God in prayer. A method of presenting truth may be used at 
first with conscious effort, like donning new clothes. But if 
the method be natural, it will soon be unconscious in effort 
as the fit of clothing which has shaped itself perfectly to the 
wearer. 

37. Methods of teaching will vary inevitably with the na¬ 
ture of the subject matter to be taught. Geography must he 
taught by maps, globes, time-tables, actual observation and 
concrete appeals to imagination. Abstract qualities must be 
taught by making them live in personal characters. Loyalty, 
by David and Jonathan; patriotism, by Washington; human 
service through sympathy, by Lincoln, and like characters. 
Religious truth will be taught by personal impression, by 
appeal to consciousness, by historic illustration, and above 
all, by making the Person of the Saviour real, living, present, 
loving, understanding and saving. 

38. Again, the methods of teaching will necessarily change. 
to conform to the interests and capacities of the minds to he 
taught. The most hopelessly inefficient teaching often comes 
from ignorant presentation of truth to minds which have no 
more comprehension of it than if it were spoken in an un¬ 
known tongue. The following sentences are copied verbatim 
from a Junior Quarterly to illustrate this truth. Children of 
nine years of age are told, under the topic, “Lessons for Me,” 
that: “God will not compare my life with others who may have 
greater or less gifts than I, but only asks that I use well the 
gifts I have; that unless nxy talents and spiritual gifts are 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


growing, they will surely waste away; that no sacrifice that 
we can make is too great for the Master who has done so 
much for us; that there is more real joy in unselfish service 
than in anything which can he gained by selfishness and sin.” 

Those truths are true enough for those who are ready for 
them. But the method of teaching is just as adapted to Junior 
minds as would be the reading to them of Grey’s Elegy, or 
Gnosis, by Cranch. The moment the method of teaching ig¬ 
nores the compelling impulse of instinct, or of interest based 
in something pleasurably significant in experience, that mo¬ 
ment the teaching stops. 

39. The teacher must therefore give proper consideration 
to her own personal character and inclinations, in choosing 
her teaching methods, adapting them to her characteristic 
habits of thought and action. The truth to be taught, having been 
clearly discerned and adequately and comprehensively known 
by the teacher, the method of presenting must be shaped so 
as best and most fittingly to adapt it to the minds to be informed 
or enriched by it. And the pupils themselves must be so known 
that their compelling instincts and the motive power depend¬ 
ent upon their active and latent centers of interest, are like 
an open book to the teacher. For no method can be efficient 
which does not appeal to these, and any method which does 
so appeal will be sure to accomplish the ends the teacher 
seeks. 


Suggestions and Questions. 

Illustrate from experience or observation a prepared lesson 
which proved, in fact, to be unprepared. (30.) 

Why may pedagogical theories prove false or impotent? 
(31.) 

How may untoward conditions of childhood in your com¬ 
munity be changed? (32.) 

How much of anatomy, physiology and hygiene ought teach¬ 
ers and parents to know? (33.) 

How are psychology and pedagogy related to each other 
and to physical conditions of the body? (34.) 

Describe method and the use of it. (35.) 

Why cannot methods of teaching be successfully copied? 
(36.) 

II 


THti MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Why is personal religion so important to the teacher of 
religion? (36.) 

Describe from your experience or observation some natural 
method of teaching. 

Why ought methods of teaching to be changed according to 
subject matter? (37.) 

Give a method of teaching adapted to the Junior lesson for 
next Sunday. 

Can the lesson of The Talents be adapted to the intellect, 
feelings, conscience and will/ of Primary pupils? Prove it. 

Describe some inefficient, or even vicious, teaching you 
have observed or experienced. 

Describe the best actual teaching of religion you have ever 
seen. 

How are you consciously seeking to make your methods o? 
teaching more efficient? 


26 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 5. 
Self-Knowledge. 

I. Motives to Self-knowledge. 

1. Intelligent living. (40) 

2. Helpful teaching. (41) 

II. Sources of Self-knowledge. 

1. Introspection. (42) 

2. Achievement. (42) 

3. Social estimate. (43, 44) 

III. Comparisons and Contrast. 

1. Individuality. (45) 

2. Personality. (46) 


CHAPTER 5. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Self 

40. It is possible to drive another where one has not 
gone. It is impossible to lead another where one does not 
go. A guide must be a companion. This is especially true 
in religious teaching. For minds are not driven to religion, 
but drawn to it. The Christian teacher is himself drawn 
by love of Christ. This same love, expressing itself in his 
life, is his power to draw others. Life must be wooed 
and won. Love must speak and continue speaking till it 
wakes response in the loved but unloving heart. To guide 
the loveless, unloving and unlovely unto Love is the re¬ 
ligious teacher’s task. 

41. To lead others into the way of self-knowledge, self¬ 
reverence and self-control requires that the teacher seek 
seriously to know himself, to know at least so much, of 
self as intelligent religious life and the religious use of 
knowledge require. But the elusive, baffling, mystifying self 
—how shall it be known? It is useless to attempt to solve 
the world-old puzzle of philosophy, or to attempt to mark 
the boundaries or sound the depths of the life that lies 
within each one of us. It is clearly needed, however, that 
the real self of the teacher shall be brought within the 
range of vision and be determined in its purposes and plans, 
its hidden motives, its capacities and capabilities. 

42. Three means of self-knowledge lie before the mind. 
The value of knowledge gained will depend somewhat upon 
which one of these means of knowledge is most employed 
and relied upon. They are: 

1. Introspection. The King James Version of the Scrip¬ 
tures seemed to enjoin self-examination, a sort of scrutiny 
of one’s self, in order to determine the quality of his being. 
(1 Cor. 11:28; 2 Cor. 13:5.) There is one phase of life 
and only one, in which such critical analysis of one’s self 
is profitable. The motives which prompt one to action can 
be determined only by introspection. Since all conduct takes 
its moral quality from the motive which prompts it, the 
integrity of one’s moral being can be known only as the 
mind takes note and measure of these motives. A much 


27 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


more wholesome moral and spiritual life would rule in Chris¬ 
tian hearts if introspection were stimulated and encouraged 
to this action and confined to| this alone. In other phases 
of life introspection is a dangerous tool to play with. It 
is well known that solitary confinement, where nothing is 
allowed to distract attention from one’s self, is an awful 
form of punishment. It dethrones reason and drives to 
madness. If introspection be indulged in without guidance 
and restraint it drives to morbid unwholesomeness of men¬ 
tal and moral life. The revised versions of the New Testa¬ 
ment state the admonition properly in these words: “Try 
your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your 
own selves.” “Let each one of you prove himself.” 

2. Achievement. Definite action reveals to consciousness 

whole regions of power and of possibility which introspec¬ 
tion can never find. Carlyle says: “A vague and half-ar¬ 
ticulate self-consciousness dwells dimly in us, which only 
our works can make clear and decisively discernible. Works 
are the mirror wherein the soul first sees its own natural 
lineameints.” This is probably only partly true. What a 
man has done and does is the only proof of what he can 
do, regardless of what he thinks he can do. The thing 

done, however, is vastly different from the mind which does. 

Nevertheless, when one starts on some line of achievement 
he often discovers to himself unsuspected power, unknown 
adaptability and unguessed skill. 

3. Social Estimate. 

“I want you to, teach a class next Sunday.” 

“Oh, 'I can’t do it! I know I can’t!” 

“Yes, you can. The boys want you, and you can do it 
all right.” 

“No, really I cannot. I won’t try. You. ought to be 
ashamed to ask me to do such a thing.” 

“But you have helped your brothers and sisters at home, 
you have been very helpful to us at different times, and 
we all think you can and ought to do what we ask.” 

“No, please get somebody else. Anybody can teach those 
boys better than I can.” 

“We have canvassed the whole church and have decided 
that you are more able to do this than anyone else in the 
church.” 


28 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


“But I have told you I can’t do it. It is simply prepos¬ 
terous. The boys know more than I do.” 

“Never mind that. We want you to do it. Our pastor 
wants you to undertake it. The boys want you to teach 
them. We all believe in you and believe you can do it if 
you will try. Will you?” 

“Why, yes; since you put it that way, I will try. But 
I know I shall fail utterly.” 

43. The frequency with which such a conversation as the 
foregoing has taken place, is witness to the fact that most 
often an individual is the poorest judge of his own com¬ 
petence to do a desired task. In a social act, such as 
teaching, the teacher is far less able to judge his own ef¬ 
fective ability than others may be who see more clearly 
the social effect of the personality. In other words, not 
what an individual thinks he can do, but what society thinks 
he can do, is the more accurate estimate of his social ability. 
In this regard, therefore, self-knowledge must be gained by 
accepting the social estimate of what one is. Apart from 
the other sources! of self-knowledge, however, this, too, is 
dangerous. If one relies upon the estimate of those who 
like him, he is apt to become afflicted with insufferable 
self-conceit. If, on the other hand, he allows the estimate 
of those who dislike him to determine his self-knowledge, 
he will be kept prisoner in the “Slough of 'Despond.” If 
a teacher has grounds for confidence in the judgment of 
one who requests him to do a task, he will, in proportion 
as he is honest and sincere, respond, “If you think I can 
do it, I will undertake to do my best. My ability may dis¬ 
appoint both of us, but I will try.” 

44. One further important consideration of this social es¬ 
timate is this: It is one o^ the strongest of levers to lift 
into consciousness and action powers which otherwise might 
always lie dormant and unused. A group of people in any 
church can force a preacher, a teacher, a superintendent 
or any other worker to planes of excellence and levels of 
efficiency, simply by believing in him, telling him what they 
believe he can and) will do, and by standing by him with 
tactful encouragement through occasional or temporary fail¬ 
ure. It is never an encouragement to lie by telling a man 


29 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


he did splendid work, when he and every: one else knows 
he blundered and failed miserably. It is encouragement to 
say, “Well, you don’t do like that most of the time. We 
can surelyf beat that next time.” In the hands of a wise 
teacher, who understands social estimate as a source of 
self-knowledge, it becomes a most valuable instrument both 
for himself and his class. 

45. The study of the necessity, value and sources of self- 
knowledge have brought us face to face with a fundamental 
fact. Each individual has two distinct manifestations of his 
life—individuality and personality. The first is what one is 
by birth. The second is what he is by education and cul¬ 
ture. Individuality is what one is, even if he were the only 
human being alive. Personality is what he is in society. 
Individuality expresses one’s relations to self, nature and 
God. Personality exhibits the self in social relations. Jesus 
had no heed that his individuality be made perfect by the 
things which he suffered. As the Saviour leading many 
sons unto righteousness, it was needful that the universal 
Person should be made the most winsome personality known 
among men. It is possible so to exaggerate individuality 
as to destroy personality. In every social task it is necessary 
that individuality shall be so controlled and modified that 
personality shall have its largest possible effect. 

46. For largest and fullest influence over a pupil, the 
Christian man and woman will put forth such .effort as is 
needed to acquire the best balanced self-knowledge which 
their opportunities permit. Individuality must be developed, 
but only so that through personality the social relations 
may be filled by] the noblest and truest self. It must 
have been considerations such as this which prompted the 
great Teacher of the Gentiles to utter the beseeching prayer, 
“That he would grant you according to the riches of his 
glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his 
spirit in the inward man.” As one has knowledge of him¬ 
self, he is able to use that self with more direct and effective 
power. Back of his social activities he must have grace 
and humility to uncover his heart before God. Only so, 
the social estimate of him, what men think that he is and 
can do, shall not outrun God’s estimate of him and of his 
abilities. 


30 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Suggestions and Questions. 

What did Jesus say about drawing or driving others re¬ 
ligiously? (40.) (John 12:32.) 

How far, in your judgment, was Tennyson right in saying 
that “self-knowledge, self-reverence and self-control lead on 
to sovereign power?” (41.) 

Illustrate introspection. (42.) 

How may it be abused? (42.) 

Have you ever done anything which revealed something 
in you to yourself which you could not have known by in¬ 
trospection? (42.) 

Have your superintendent or pastor give you some illus¬ 
tration of the power of social estimate to increase one’s 
knowledge of himself. (42.) 

Why is a candid and honest friend a great help to one's 
self-knowledge? (43.) 

Put in practice the power of social estimate to transform 
a friend. (44.) 

Illustrate from your observation the difference between in¬ 
dividuality and personality. (45.) 

Which have you been developing most, your individuality 
or your personality? (46.) 

Why is a knowledge of one’s real self of primary im¬ 
portance to the teacher of religion? 


31 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 6. 

Knowing the Trut'h. 

I. Unique Responsibility in Religious Teaching. 

1. Insight required. (47) 

2. Definitions. (48) 

II. The Action of God in Men and Nations. (49) 

1. Early Jewish history. 

2. Later Jewish history. 

3. Gospel history. 

4. The early church. 

5. Persons and churches. 

6. Prophecy. 

7. In missions. 

8. In nature. 

III. Truths to Teach. (50) 

1. The living Christ in relation to, (50) 

a. Creation. 

b. Childhood. 

c. The Godhead and the church. 

d. Human need. 

e. Conscience. 

f. The source of new life. 

IV. Truth Energized. 

1. Transformations. (51) 

2. The new teacher. (52) 


32 


r 1 . f CHAPTER 6. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Religious Truth 

47. “Clear ideas are hard to get, especially about the most 
familiar things.” It would be difficult for most teachers, prob¬ 
ably even for most preachers, to tell precisely what they mean 
when they use the term religion. The Sunday School teacher 
is primarily a teacher of the Christian religion. The Sunday 
School is the only institution in Christendom whose sole busi¬ 
ness is to teach religion and whose teachers have no other 
business in their teaching. Unless, then, the teacher knows 
clearly the difference between religion and morals, between a 
religious life and a merely moral life, between religion and 
social or domestic decency, between religion and the exercise 
of purely humanitarian virtues, such as generosity, sympathy, 
and the like, unless, in short, the teacher’s knowledge of re¬ 
ligion and religious truth is definite and clear, the teaching 
of religion is bound to be indefinite, hazy, unsatisfying and 
incomplete. Plainly, therefore, the Sunday School teacher has 
more need than any other teacher in the world to sit down in 
quietness and to take stock of his actual knowledge of reli¬ 
gious things. It is quite impossible for one to teach what he 
does not know. If the teacher does not know religion and 
live it, how shall he teach it? 

48. Religion.—A bare definition of religion will be a 
jumble of words, and little else, unless the ideas contained 
in the definition are made living by being built into the life. 
Many definitions and descriptions of religion have been made. 
Perhaps the best one for the use of teachers is this: “Reli¬ 
gion is the realization in thought, feeling and action of an 
idea of God.’’ The Christian religion accordingly is the reali¬ 
zation in thought, feeling and action of Christ’s idea of God. 
Christ’s idea of God was that he is Father. Being such, he 
seeks to establish between himself and man the intimate, per¬ 
sonal, affectionate relationship of father to child. This idea 
of God, Jesus realized perfectly in his own sinless life of per¬ 
fect Sonship. He lovingly calls men to be his disciples in 
order that he may teach them to think of God and to treat 

33 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


him as their Father. “Our Father,” “My Father and your 
Father, my God and your God,” and such tender phrases are 
ever on his tongue. When men are learning to think of God 
and his works as Jesus did, they are realizing in thought 
Christ’s idea of God. When they are learning the feelings of 
Christ toward God and his works, they are realizing Christ’s 
idea of God in their emotions. When they are learning to do 
the will of “Our Father in heaven,’’ they are realizing in their 
actions Christ’s idea of God. To become a Christian is to be 
united with Jesus Christ and to learn through him to think 
and to feel and to do the things which are pleasing to the 
Father. As the discipleship continues, and the lessons are 
better learned, the realization in thought, feeling and action 
of Christ’s idea of God is better and more perfect, for the dis¬ 
ciples are being conformed by God’s spirit into the image of 
his Son. 

49. Teaching Religion from the Bible.—The Bible is the 
authoritative literature of two great religions: the Jewish 
and the Christian. These religions are built up about two 
wholly different conceptions of the same God. To trace the 
difference in these conceptions and in tlje systems of worship 
to which they gave rise, is a work of comparative religion. It 
has been said that “Christ is the golden thread which binds 
the Testaments into one book of religion.” It is true that in 
the Bible the teacher will find successive views of God’s ac¬ 
tion in the world. To explain to the unformed Jewish nation 
their experiences in the forty years of wandering in the desert, 
Moses showed first of all the far background of God’s action 
in universal history; then his action in and through the patri¬ 
archs of their immediate ancestry; then his action in calling 
them from Egypt, “through a mighty hand and by an out¬ 
stretched arm,” instituting their civil and religious law and 
custom and bringing them to the promised land. The seven¬ 
teenth chapter of Second Kings is the religious interpretation 
of the later history of the Jewish state. In psalmist and 
prophets, the teacher finds expressed the action of God in the 
later periods of the Jewish nation and religion, and the way 
men felt and thought and acted toward God as they under¬ 
stood him. In the fourfold Gospel record, the teacher finds 
God’s action in the person of his Son; in Acts of Apostles, his 
action by the Holy Spirit in the early church; in the doc- 

34 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


trinal, pastoral and general epistles, God’s action in the per¬ 
sonal experience of apostles and believers; in the Apocalypse, 
the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God’s action in the full and 
final triumph of the kingdom of his Son. In missions the 
teacher finds the history of God’s action in men and women of 
heroic consecration, achieving miraculous triumphs of love in 
every land. In nature the teacher finds expressions of God’s 
loving care in every object he has made. Thus, to see God 
in all his works is to study religion. To see in Christ the 
fullest and final revelation of God and his purposes for man, 
is to study the Christian religion. To shape every lesson so 
as to bring the pupil face to face with God and his purpose 
in nature, in history, in man, in the teacher and in the pupil 
himself, is to teach religion. To lead the pupil to bring his 
life into harmonious response to God and his revealed pur¬ 
poses is to lead the pupil to become a Christian and to embark 
on the Christian life. 

50. Teaching Religious Truth.—The most powerful truth the 
teacher teaches is the truth he lives. The only vital religion 
the pupil will have is the religious truth he is taught to live. 
It is very clear, therefore, that the teacher must have some 
living truth which permeates and pervades his life and teach¬ 
ing. It is not at all necessary that teachers shall have a glib 
command of a great stock of truths; but rather that they have 
some few vital truths which serve as the anchorage of their 
own souls, and which may become soul-anchors in the lives 
of the pupils. A simple statement of a few such vital truths 
may be mad© as follows: 

1. The Living Christ. —Jesus Christ is the living Son of the 
living God. So much has been said and sung and written of 
what Jesus used to be, of what he was two thousand years 
ago, that what the living Christ is now is apt to be obscured. 
His presence in loving power is the sublimest truth which any 
mind can realize. 

2. The Creative Christ. —“All things were made through 
him; and without him was not anything made that hath been 
made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” 
The monstrous teaching that babes are born children of the 
devil is a relic of heathenism, and can be taught only by 
heathen teachers. Of all the created universe, children are 
most surely creatures of Christ's love. 

35 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


3. The Nurturing Christ. —In Christ is the food of the soul, 
the strength for its growth, the truth for its life. To lead child¬ 
hood into the nurture of Christ is a holy privilege. The Chris¬ 
tian religion has no higher service than to rear childhood in 
the knowledge and obedient love of Christ the Saviour. 

4. The Revealing Christ. —“All things have delivered unto 
me of my Father; and no one knoweth the Son save the Fa¬ 
ther; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and 
he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal. Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are neavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me . . . and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls.” The Son reveals the Father, and 
the Holy Spirit reveals the Son. Even so the church reveals 
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, by manifesting the love of 
God to men. To embody and express the mind of Christ, the 
love of Christ and the will of Christ in all the earth, is the 
sole and supreme business of the Christian Church. 

5. The Serving Christ —“The Son of man came not to he 
ministered unto, but to minister.” Minister and serve are 
the same word in the original language of the New Testament. 
To serve men for love of Christ is the divine privilege of those 
who become by faith members in the body of Christ. 

6. The Impelling Christ. —Love of Christ is the only motive 
to thought and deed which the Christian conscience can ap¬ 
prove. 

7. The Regenerating Christ. —In calling the human mind 
into being, Christ has so shaped it that all right action springs 
from right feelings, and right feelings are inspired by a right 
knowledge of God and a right attitude toward him. To create 
right habits of feeling and action in the lives of Christ’s little 
ones, to give to them the right idea of God, and to lead them 
to put implicit trust in him is the highest form of Christian 
service, the full and final task of religious teaching. 

51. Energizing Religious Knowledge.—Truths such as the 
foregoing may be admitted by the mind, accepted by intel¬ 
lectual assent. If so treated, they are mere intellectual toys; 
playthings of the mind, more or less adequate items in 
idle philosophizing. They can be proved true only as they 
are built into the life. If so treated, they are vitalized, ener¬ 
gized and become “the power of God unto salvation.” To 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


treat God as the living Father, to act toward Christ and men 
as if Christ really were living and saving here and now the 
sons of men; to treat children as if they were in deed and 
truth the precious creatures of Christ’s love; to treat Sunday 
School teaching as if it were the holiest and sacredest service 
which could occupy the energies of man—so to energize truth 
is to make real in one’s own life and to his fellows Christ’s 
idea of God and of man. Truth so energized transforms Bible 
study and Bible teaching into a work full of joy and profitable 
delight. It transforms teachers into living inspirations to 
pupils and to all whose lives they touch. It makes impossible 
forevermore a spiritless teaching of petty and inconsequential 
details. It transforms the task of teaching from drudgery to 
deli&ht; from work reluctantly undertaken, to a ministry 
eagerly anticipated. It transforms lesson preparation, lifts 
it away from hasty and careless thought and plants it in a 
new world where every object in nature and the commonplace 
experiences of daily life illustrate the love of God, sing songs 
of praise and gladness, and tell a living story of God’s living 
love. 

52. The New Teacher. The church of Christ is living in 
a new day. “Old things are passed away; behold all things 
are become new, and all things are of God.” New opportu¬ 
nities throng the doorw'ay of the church; new paths of service 
open before her feet; new obligations crowd upon her from 
all lands on earth; while new privileges of usefulness press 
for her enjoyment. In the Sunday School of today are the 
Christian servants of tomorrow. What vision of themselves 
and God, of truth and beauty, of life and death, of Christ and 
the church, of service and reward, shall they gather in your 
class rooms? What visions shall they carry in the soul, im¬ 
pelling them to the battle which lies just beyond their short 
to-day? Must this old world continue to be cruel, heartless, 
full of greed, groveling in sin and wickedness and woe, or 
shall it be that the new day has dawned when the Church has 
laid upon its heart the divine duty to nurture life and give it 
culture from birth till death, and make it thrill with the ex¬ 
pectancy of the presence of the living God? The answer to 
all such vital questions as are these, waits wholly on the prep¬ 
aration which religious teachers are willing to make to prac¬ 
tice the art of teaching religion in the name of Christ. 

37 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 



SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS. 

How would you distinguish between a clear idea and one 
which is indefinite or vague? (47.) 

Why must the teacher think clearly in order to teach clear¬ 
ly? (47.) 

Define religion. (48.) 

Define the Christian religion. (48.) 

Give a Scripture reference on how to become a Christian. 
(48.) 

What ought to be expected from Christians in their efforts 
to realize Christ’s idea of God? (48.) 

Explain the religious view of the Bible by outline. (49.) 

How may one experience how the historic facts concern¬ 
ing Jesus may be made to obscure rather than to illumine 
facts of his present relationship to men. (49.) 

Describe the life of some parent, teacher or friend who lived 
their religion. (49.) 

Explain the difference between getting pupils to accept 
Christ, and getting them to join the church. (49.) 

What pervading religious truth dominates your life? (50.) 

Is there a vital difference between getting an individual to 
admit that Jesus was the Christ and leading him to confess 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? (50.) 

Is it natural for children properly reared to unfold into 
Christ? (50.) 

What does this imply concerning their origin? (50.) 

What does the expression, “the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord,’’ mean to you? (50.) 

How does the life of the church reveal the divinity of Christ? 
(42.) 

When may a service be said to be Christian, and when not? 
(50.) 

Why can the Christian conscience approve “love of Christ” 
as the only proper motive? (50.) 

If men implicitly trust Christ, what more have they to do 
with regeneration? (50.) 

Tell from experience some truth you have energized. (51.) 

38 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


How can Sunday School teaching be energized? 

Tell some of the transformations which result from vitaliz¬ 
ing truth. (51.) 

What preparation ought teachers to make to do the work 
that needs doing in your community? (52.) 

What profit has come to you from your training work thus 
far? (52.) 

Why ought your teacher training work to he a permanent 
part of your Sunday School? (52.) 


f 


39 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 7. 


Knowing How to Teach. 

I. The Teaching Task. (53) 

1. Importance. (53) 

2. Way of approach. (53) 

3. Consciousness. (54) 

II. The Teaching Process. (55) 

1. Attention. 

2. Preparation. 

3. Presentation. 

4. Expression. 

5. Repetition. 

6. Quit. 

III. Self-Criticism. (56) 

IV. How Not To Teach. 

1. Preaching. (57) 

2. Lecturing. (58) 

3. Story-telling. (59) 

4. Recitation. (60) 

5. Superficial questions. (61) 

V. The Heart of the Matter. (62) 


40 


CHAPTER 7. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching 

53. Love of pupils is indispensable to the equipment of an 
effective teacher. So also is intelligent knowledge of self and 
personal knowledge of religious truth. No one of these things 
is sufficient, however, to qualify a teacher to undertake the 
sacred responsibility of teaching religion. Indeed, the pos¬ 
session of warm affection and of both the above kinds of knowl¬ 
edge does not imply that one knows how to teach. Few teach¬ 
er training books have emphasized this truth. Bible knowl¬ 
edge has been exalted. The character of the teacher has been 
set up as of fundamental importance. The importance to the 
individual, and to the world, of religious instruction has been 
urged. But on the very point where most teachers need most 
help and direction, the teacher training books have been most 
inadequate. Teachers are sent up against the task of teach¬ 
ing just as boys go up against a push ball. The thing is gi¬ 
gantic. It is definite in itself. It bulks big in proportion to 
the mass of boys. It must be handled. But it has no handles 
where anyone can get hold of it. Here are suggested some 
“handles’’ which make the work of teaching a joy to the soul, 
a delight to the heart, and a great gladness to both teachers 
in teaching and pupils in learning. 

54. The one “handle” of the learning mind is attention. 
Regardless of technical definitions, the teacher must know 
that only as attention is focused can the pupil learn. It would 
be as well to ask a pupil to look at the back of his own head 
as to ask his mind to grasp anything of which it is at that 
moment unconscious. Whatever fact is present in conscious¬ 
ness the mind is learning. Whatever fact is not in the pu¬ 
pil’s consciousness the pupil does not and cannot learn. Until 
the teacher has secured the focus of consciousness of the pu¬ 
pils, teaching is wholly impossible. This definite and indis¬ 
pensable “handle” by which to control and guide the mind is 
the first object of the teacher’s quest. 

55. Teaching. In the teacher’s mind is a truth which is 
not yet in the pupil’s mind. To get that truth secure in the 
possession of the pupil’s mind is the end of the teaching pro- 

41 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


cess. The first step in this process is to secure attention; 
then prepare the attentive minds for apprehending the expres¬ 
sion the teacher is about to make of the chosen truth; then 
express that truth in such ways that it may be clearly seen, 
apprehended and understood by the attentive minds; then 
secure some definite expression of that truth from the pupils, 
whether by word or act; then encourage repeated expressions 
of that truth so as to know that it is being built into the 
pupils’ lives, just as their food is built into their physical 
bodies; then let it alone. 

56. Review. In the light of this brief explanation of the 
teaching process, let each teacher stop at this point and care¬ 
fully review the teaching he has done in the past. Determine 
for instance, if you have always made it a point to have in 
mind, before facing your class, some definite, positive, clear- 
cut, well-defined truth, relevant to the present life of the pupils 
and vital to their future. Have you consciously sought to 
prepare the minds of the pupils to receive that truth as a most 
natural activity of their minds? Have you sought .to suggest 
things the pupils might do to try the truth out, give concrete 
expression to it, test it for themselves and make it living and 
vital? Have you sought by question and suggestion to ascertain 
if the pupil’s grasp of the truth is what you want it to be, or 
what you know it ought to be? Have you constantly sought the 
help of God’s Spirit to make your teaching a living, vital pro¬ 
cess in the experience of your pupils? Unless you face the reali¬ 
ties of your own life as a teacher in its relation to your pupils, 
all the books in the world cannot help you to be an effective 
teacher. Definitions, descriptions, directions and suggestions 
will be dead, dry, worthless things till you make them alive. 
A kiss has been defined as “a physiological demonstration of 
a psychological condition,” and as “two smiles gone crazy.” 
Either definition is. as much like the xeal thing as de¬ 
scriptions of teaching are to the real process. Try it. That 
is the only way to prove both definition and osculation, as well 
as theories of teaching and the living task. 

57. Preaching, Lecturing, Talking and Teaching. The pro¬ 
cess of preaching is almost precisely the opposite of teach¬ 
ing. It begins with a formal statement of a truth and consists 
of explaining terms, expounding the truth, elaborating it, and 
making application of it to present conditions. It begins with 
the text and works toward a human problem. Few preachers 

42 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


are able to forget the preaching process, deal first with the 
problem in the consciousness of the student, and work back 
from that to the divine solution of the problem. For this rea¬ 
son few preachers are good teachers. 

58. Lecturing is not teaching. A lecture is a formal dis¬ 
course on some topic. Methodical arrangement and continuity 
of thought are characteristics of a lecture. It presupposes 
mental discipline and training in the listener. Instruction 
by lecturing is limited to advanced academic courses in col¬ 
lege and university—and Sunday School. For the untrained 
and inexpert minds of pupils the lecture method is the poorest 
form of teaching. To be used successfully by the teacher 
he must be an expert in dealing with human minds as well 
as an expert in selecting, preparing and presenting truths. 
It requires a very high degree of concentration, of spontaneous 
comparison and judgment, and of voluntary attention on the 
student’s part to follow a spoken address in continuous 
thought for more than fifteen minutes. With a skilled lec¬ 
turer and trained thinkers for an audience, the lecture method 
of instruction is valuable. In ordinary Sunday-School con¬ 
ditions it is one of the poorest possible methods of teaching. 

59. Story-telling may be teaching of the highest sort—It 
may not be teaching at all. It depends wholly on the na¬ 
ture of the story and on now and when it is told. The art 
of religious teaching, especially in the elementary grades, is 
in the largest degree the art of story-telling. Seven children, 
ranging in years from about four to nine, are playing to¬ 
gether in a yard directly across the street as these words are 
written. One of the girls says, “Let’s tell stories.” They 
troop away and are sitting in a row on the stone steps of 
a large house. The girl in the middle begins, with ostenta¬ 
tious formality, “Well, once upon a time—” The rest of the 
words are lost in the noise of the street. But every eager 
face is turned toward her, except that of thej largest girl, 
who is looking away off. The two tots at the ends leave 
their places and get behind the story-teller, with faces over 
her shoulder. Presently the story-teller stands up and faces 
the others. Her hands are as eloquent as her tongue. She 
is measuring something, maybe the lengtn of a sword, for 
six pairs of eyes are open wide. Now she looks as if she 
were measuring a huge dish of ice cream. All the children 
are smiling with delight. The littlest tot is unconsciously 

43 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


following with his hands the motions of the story-teller. This 
picture in real life is a most perfect lesson in pedagogy to 
every teacher who has eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart 
to heed the unconscious perfectness of art which God im¬ 
plants in his little ones. 

60. To “hear a recitation” is not to teach. The old system 
of assigning a lesson for pupils to study, and then calling on 
them to recite, is a pedagogical joke where it is not a real 
tragedy. Whether in day school or Sunday School, such 
“teaching” is a confession by the teacher of inability to teach. 
As a matter of fact, not one child in a multitude knows how 
to study or ever does) study. To commit facts to memory 
is most often the direct opposite of thinking or studying. In 
Germany, the home of the kindergarten and of high peda¬ 
gogical skill, the aphorism is most common that children can 
learn but they cannot study. Sunday-School teachers are 
learning far more quickly than did public school teachers 
that the teacher’s chief opportunity is to study] along with 
the children, use the lesson period for discussion and illumi¬ 
nation of a truth or a topic, and then assign to each pupil a 
definite task in further illustration or expression of the les¬ 
son just studied. When this wholesome pedagogical -truth 
is practiced in our Sunday Schools, the period of instruction 
will be spent with the lesson for the coming week instead 
of with the one for the past week; previews will take the 
place of the old reviews which always undertook to review 
what had never been viewed or previewed. As a matter of 
fact, the new system of Graded Lessons is built on this 
newer and saner principle. Pupils now go home full of eager¬ 
ness to do by handwork or other w r ork the lesson just learned 
in Sunday School. Superintendents of schools and of de¬ 
partments will henceforth devote their best energies to 
giving the whole school or department a preview which will 
send them to their classes; full of eagerness and expectant 
desire to get more information and instruction on the truth 
so introduced. 

61. To ask superficial questions on matters of lesson detail 
is not to teach. Oh, the pedagogical horror of some of the 
teaching we used to have which never taught us anything! 
One dear old teacher (?) used regularly tot beg£n, with 
Quarterly in hand, and the program always went like this: 
What is the title of this lesson? What is the Golden Text? 

44 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


John, please read the first verse. What did Moses say? 
Robert, please read the second verse. What did the people 
say? Thomas, please read the next verse. What did the 
calf say? Now, what lesson can we get out of this for us? 

The only lesson we ever got out of it was a splendid les¬ 
son on how not to teach. 

To spend the precious moments set apart for teaching re¬ 
ligion-moments ail too few and too short—in dealing with 
inconsequential and petty details which have no living con¬ 
nection with either the profession or practice of Christian 
faith, is, in this age, an inexcusable prostitution of match¬ 
less opportunity. Laziness, indifference or ignorance of what 
and how to teach the religion of Jesus Christ is becoming 
more and more intolerable, and without excuse which the 
teacher can offer or Christ accept. 

62. To teach is to cause the pupil to know what the teacher 
knows and desires the pupil to know. The teacher must know 
what truth he purposes to teach. He must know the mind 
which is to be taught the truth. He must know how that 
mind is to be informed and enriched by that truth. He must 
know how the untaught mind can lay hold on that truth, ap¬ 
propriate it, assimilate it, work it into practical experience 
and make it a living truth. He must cultivate different meth¬ 
ods of expressing truth to the pupil and contrive different 
means by which the pupil may give vital expression to the 
truth gained. He must learn, by practice, the fine arts of 
teaching; the art of eliciting truth by questions, or by skill¬ 
ful leading questions to prepare the pupil’s mind to receive 
the truth; the art of story-telling, of embodying truth in word 
pictures so that the story cannot be forgotten, nor the em¬ 
bodied truth lost; the art of illustration, by incident, by 
graphic symbols on the blackboard, by concrete objects, or 
by appeals to experience; the art of a holy life. “This is life 
eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God, and 
him) whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. .... 
that they may be one, even as we are one.” 

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS. 

What is your chief lack as a Sunday School teacher—char¬ 
acter, scholarship or skill? (53.) 

Can anyone who wishes learn how to teach? 

45 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IE 


Criticise your own past teaching with relation to securing, 
holding and using attention. (54.) 

Describe in full the teaching process. (55.) 

What does the phrase mean to you, a “truth relevant to 
the pupil’s present life and vital to his future”? Name one 
such truth. (56.) 

Try a new teaching process within one week and report 
progress to the class. (56.) 

Why is sermonizing a poor teaching method? (57.) 

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the lecture 
as a method of teaching. (58.) 

Does the word picture of the children telling stories do any¬ 
thing more than interest you? Why? (59.) 

From your own experience illustrate the contrast between 
studying and learning. (60.) 

Discuss the relative merits of reviews and previews. (60.) 

Do you use the Graded Lessons to preview the pupils’ work 
for the coming week? How do you like the method? (60.) 

What excuses for poor teaching may teachers properly 
make to the Master Teacher, whose disciples they are? (61.) 

Tell some of the different things a good teacher must know. 
(62.) 

How can anyone learn to teach if they really want to? (62.) 


“Education is part of the life-process. It is the adaptation of 
a person, a self-conscious being, to environment, and the de¬ 
velopment of capacity in a person to modify or control that 
environment. The adaptation of a person to his environment 
is the conservative force in human history. It is the basis of 
continuity, solidarity. The development in a person of capacity 
to modify or control his environment gives rise to progress, 
change, development. Education, therefore, makes for progress 
on the basis of the present acquisitions of the race.’WButler. 


“The Sunday School must, first of all, understand fully the 
organization, aims and methods of the public schools; for it 
is their ally. It must take into consideration the progress of 
the instruction there given in secular subjects, and must cor- 

46 




THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


relate its own religious instruction with. this. It must study 
the facts of child-life and development, and it must base its 
methods upon the actual needs and capacities of childhood. 
It must organize its work economically and scientifically, and 
it must demand of its teachers special and continuous prepa¬ 
ration for their work. It must realize that it is, first and above 
all, an educational institution and not a proselytizing one, and 
that the inherent force of the truth which it teaches is far 
greater than any attempted bending of that truth to special 
ends. It must cease to be merely a part of the missionary 
work of the parish, and become a real factor in the educational 
work of the community. It must give more time to its work, 
and the traditional division of time on Sunday will have to be 
gradually readjusted in order to make a serious Sunday School 
session possible.’ —Butler. 



CHAPTER OUTLINE. 8. 

The Teaching Necessity. 

I. Attention Illustrated. (64) 

1. Effort. (65) 

2. Delivering the life and death message. 

3. Interest. (67) 

a. Instinct. 

b. Experience. 

II. Using Attention. 

1. Readiness. (68) 

2. Accuracy. (69) 

3. .Practice. (69) 

III. A Needed Warning. (70) 


( 66 ) 


48 


CHAPTER 8. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching—Attention 

63. When you; have finished reading this first sentence, 
close the book for a moment and look closely at the door 
nearest you until you have a clear mental picture of the size, 
shape, color, relation to doorway and threshold, and to the 
wall in which it is placed. Close the book. 

64. Glance as often at the same door as you may desire 
t° stimulate and quicken your imagination during the illus¬ 
tration which follows: Conceive that behind that door, en¬ 
closed in a room he never leaves, is an active, intelligent and 
affectionate life. He is always alive to something. If you 
summon him properly he will heed you and ignore the calls 
that always appeal to him from other interests. Often, when 
you are least conscious of it, he comes to the doorway and 
watches you intently. Sometimes, if you have impressed him, 
he comes to the doorway and looks closely where you have 
been, just as if he saw you there in person. It is in your 
powder to summon him at any time. If you call him frequent¬ 
ly when you have no message for him, he will regard you as 
you do the boy who rings your doorbell and runs away, or 
stands stupidly telling you he wanted nothing, or, at most, 
he asks for some trifle which was unworthy of your time or 
his asking. On the door are two “handles,” like old-fashioned 
knockers. If you use one of these handles, the busy life will 
come and stand in the doorway by sheer act of will. He is 
not particularly interested either in coming or staying when 
summoned by this call. Ifi you use the other handle, the 
more prominent one, the one from which hangs convenient 
cords by which to use it, the busy life will come to the door¬ 
way because he wants to. He would rather be there when 
that call comes than to be anywhere else in his room or to 
be busy at anything else. 

65. The door is Attention. The “handles” are Effort and 
Interest. The powers of the soul respond only to these two 
calls. The old education built its system of instruction almost 
wholly on effort. Huge tasks \vere assigned “for mental drill,” 
as it was termed. Peremptory authority summoned the soul 
tp the doorway, handed it the work to be done, and demanded 

49 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


that it should be done in a definite way and time, regardless 
of the interests of life which impel the soul to go here, there 
and everywhere. A grim parent of the old type soundly 
thrashed his little son in September for having failed to pass 
some school examination four months before. His educational 
scheme ignores interest and depends on effort inspired by fear 
to prompt to scholarship. The only direct result of this brutal 
misuse of the system is to create in the son hatred for learn¬ 
ing, and contempt for the parent. The system of education 
by effort was not all bad. But it was inadequate to the de¬ 
mands of the busy life behind the door. 

66. When the soul is summoned to the doorway of atten¬ 
tion by the call of interest, it stands eager and expectant, re¬ 
ceptive and responsive, unconscious of all other appeals, con¬ 
scious only of the messenger without and unconsciously ready 
to receive the message and bear it within. The task of sum¬ 
moning the soul to the doorway is comparatively simple. 
Many eminent psychologists say, “the art of teaching is the 
art of securing attention.” A moment’s reflection will show 
that this cannot be true except in very small degree. The 
art of teaching is, rather, the art of using attention. A light 
call through interest brings the waiting soul to the doorway. 
Then is the teacher’s opportunity to teach, to deliver accu¬ 
rately “the Message of Truth.’” The teacher is indeed the 
messenger entrusted with a life and death message to the 
life behind the door. To be accurate in delivering it is to be 
true to God. (2 Tim. 2:15. Twentieth Century New Testa¬ 
ment.) 

67. To secure that attention which the teacher must needs 
use, he must appeal to the vital interests of the untaught 
life. Instinct and experience are two channels of interest, 
either of which is an imperative summons to the soul to stand 
alert in the doorway of attention. If the teacher appeals to 
a latent instinct and quickens it to activity, the soul is at at¬ 
tention in spite of itself. It is ready to learn without study¬ 
ing. If the teacher makes an appeal to anything strikingly 
significant in the past life of the mind, again it springs with 
eagerness to the portal of attention. It is ready to learn with¬ 
out studying. If the teacher, by act or word, appeals to the 
instinct of play, curiosity, affection, imitation, perversity, re¬ 
ligion or, in adolescence and maturity, to the conjugal, do¬ 
mestic or altruistic instincts, any appeal tQ nny one instinct 

. 50 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


is a summons which the soul is compelled to heed. Or an 
appeal to a vivid recollection of a show, picnic, whipping, new 
toy, a hard task done—anything which has entered largely, 
whether by pleasure or pain, into the inner life behind the 
door, will serve to bring the soul again with joyous expectancy 
to greet the messenger. 

68. Teaching is delivering the Message. It is relatively 
easy for a teacher to call in all the wool gatherers, dreamers, 
busy Marthas of both sexes, and have every eye and ear, every 
gateway to the chambers of Mansoul opened wide—and then 
fail to teach. The effect of failing repeatedly at the crucial 
moment to deliver a message worth while has a deadening 
effect on the expectant soul. More and more slowly will it 
respond to the summons, more and more indifferent will it 
grow, more and more easily will it give itself over to other 
calls from life and living things. About this time the teacher 
will begin to wonder why pupils stay away; why adult stu¬ 
dents prefer to sleep, read, go to picnics, read the paper, or 
do almost anything rather than go to Sunday School. 

69. Teaching is securing attention and using it. So to 
gain the conscious action of the mind that it will see what the 
teacher sees, move as the mind of the teacher moves, go as 
the teacher guides, grasp with the teacher what the teacher 
grips, receive into its life what the teacher has made vital 
by his life, and be strengthened, nourished, edified, built up, 
enriched and enlarged by the acceptance of the Message—this 
is the work of teaching religion. To hold attention when it 
is once secured is more difficult, as every teacher knows, 
than -to secure it. To make the largest and fullest use of 
attention as it is secured and held is the -perfection of the 
teaching art. This perfection comes only by practice. Prac¬ 
tice is the mother of resourcefulness and skill. 

70. Warning concerning attention. Teachers must beware 
lest, when the mind behind the door is summoned, he appears 
for but a moment and quickly disappears again, leaving only 
a dead mask behind, whose unseeing eyes and seeming ears 
see not nor hear. If other interests are more appealing to 
the mind than are you, you may be fooled by appearances 
and waste your time and energy. 

A little lad lay quietly in his mother’s arms. She had been 
waiting long for just such an opportunity as this. Taking 
advantage of his quiet and receptive mood, she proceeded to 

51 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


pour out moral culture which the boy most surely needed. 
The boy looked up into her face with innocent quietness. 
After delivering her message she paused to think of some¬ 
thing else timely to the rare occasion. “Go on, mamma,” 
said the boy. 

“Why, does Freddie like to hear mamma talk this way?” 
she asked, in pleased surprise. 

“No; but, mamma, your chin wiggles so funny,” was the 
highly moral reply. 

Dr. Brumbaugh relates that he was graciously thanked by 
a convention speaker for his eloquent attention to her ad¬ 
dress. She was shocked to discover how he had been mis¬ 
understood. The speaker wore some feather adornments in 
her hat. They waved vigorously with her gesticulations. The 
attentive professor had been tremendously interested to know 
how long those feathers might endure in place and be secure 
from falling off. 

In both these cases, there was only a mask in the doorway 
of attention. The mind behind the door was busy with other 
interests. 

71. The arts of questioning, story-telling, illustration and 
of living the truth are the true arts by which the mind in the 
doorway of attention is to be taught. That mind works ac¬ 
cording to laws fixed by the Creator. The teacher must con¬ 
form to those laws. Each teacher must choose, first of all, 
his own natural way of acquiring and expressing truth, and 
from that as a starting point, he must work outward and 
forward to meet the like demands in other minds. To start 
intelligently, to proceed thoughtfully, to practice persistently, 
and to pray without ceasing is the sole secret of success in 
religious teaching. 

Suggestions and Questions. 

Using the room in which you now sit as a convenient 
figure of speech, illustrate attention and how to secure it. 
(64.) 

Fixing your attention on your own mental processes, 
tell how perception, memory, imagination and judgment 
helped you to learn by means of the illustrations used in 
these paragraphs. (64.) 


52 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Giving attention to the illustrations as a whole, what seems 
to you to be its most suggestive phases? (64.) 

Give illustrations from your own experience of the old 
system of education. (65.) 

Tell from observation the differing interests of two chil¬ 
dren of the same age. (66.) 

How do you best learn? By exerting conscious effort in 
study, or through the involuntary attention inspired by an ap¬ 
peal to that in which you are interested? (67.) 

Illustrate in the class an appeal to instinct; to experience. 
(67.) 

Illustrate from observation or experience the teacher’s ne¬ 
cessity of being well prepared to teach vital truth when at¬ 
tention is secured. (68.) 

Illustrate in the class the three steps of securing, holding 
and using attention. (69.) 

Why are blackboards and other items of equipment neces¬ 
sary in good teaching? (69.) 

Illustrate from your own experience the difference between 
real attention and appearing to be attentive, when your mind 
is actually inattentive to teacher, preacher or book. (70.) 

Describe what now you conceive to be successful teaching 
of religion. (71.) 


53 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 9. 
The Living Chain-Stitch. 

I. The Laws of Association. 

1. Living connections. (72) 

2. Dead words. (73) 

3. Abuse of memory. (74) 

4. Illustrations. (76, 78) 

II. Memory. Four Distinct Functions. 

1. To retain. (79) 

2. Re-collect. 

3. Re-present. 

4. Recognize. 

5. Relation to teaching. (80) 

III. Imagination. 

1. Relation to thoughts. (81) 

2. Relation to actions. (81) 

IV. The Place of Vision in Religion. 


54 


CHAPTER 9. 

Laws of Association 

72. If ideas were only like coins, and minds were like 

pockets, the work of teaching would be much simpler and 
easier—and worthless. As it is, like the nerves of the body, 
ideas are living things, united together in many ways and 
constituting as a whole a living body of knowledge. There¬ 
fore, teaching is a living task. It deals with live truths, 

with live ideas, with live minds, and with eternal life. It 
is this condition which makes teaching a growing task, an 
occupation of ever deeper fascination to the teacher, and of 
deeper significance to those who have been taught. 

73. Some ideas are carried in minds much like coins in the 

pocket. A father taught his little son to speak a sentence 
in Latin. The lad was proud of his accomplishment. He 
repeated to his mother, sisters, himself, to everybody and 
nobody the sentence, ‘‘Jacobus duodecim filios habuit.” The 
idea had not, and never has had, the remotest connection 

with anything in the real life of that boy’s mind. But long 

years after, like jingling a coin in his pocket, his mind will 
not infrequently get out that old “ Jacobus ” and play with it. 
It has nothing to do with mental energy; it has no connec¬ 
tion with any vital knowledge; it contributes nothing useful; 
it is not even a really acceptable plaything; it is simply so 
much dead matter carried around in memory. The mind 
would be better off without it, and much more of the same 
kind. 

74. Teaching, both in public schools and in Sunday School, 
is cumbered and burdened with far too much of just such 
useless and worthless stuff. Very little, indeed, iwhich has to 
be committed to memory by sheer effort of will is of any 
vital consequence to life, either by way of information or en¬ 
richment. It was kindly provision by the Creator that made 
it possible for us to forget most of what we were compelled 
to learn. By crowding it into oblivion, by acquiring real, live, 
workable, usable and valuable knowledge, adult life is able 
to overcome the tremendous handicap of a memory loaded, 
like a box filled with chips, with a miscellaneous assortment 
of odds and ends of information which nobody ever did have 

55 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


any use for outside of books. Memorizing unrelated facts, 
whether unrelated to each other or to the immediate con¬ 
cerns of life, is the direct opposite of thinking; it prevents 
real study of living Truth, and is rapidly passing into the 
limbo of academic forgetfulness. 

79. Live ideas in the mind are always related to each 
other and to right living. It is the inter-relation of thoughts 
and impressions which constitutes enrichment of the soul. 
A truth is never really taught until it is really learned, and 
it is never thoroughly learned until it is interwoven with the 
vital truths already in mind. The relations between ideas in 
the mind constitute the Laws of Association with which 
effective teaching has much to do. Since the relation and 
association of ideas in the mind are based upon experience, 
and cannot go outside of it, it is important for the teacher 
to know what ideas the same word or expression will call 
up in different minds. 

76. Similarity of sound, either initial or final, or a contrast 
of opposites; nearness or distance in space; a relationship 
in time; or kinship of action are the associations with which 
teachers are apt to have most need to know and use. To 
illustrate: The word “white” may suggest “what” and “whit¬ 
tle,” or “right” and “smite,” or “whitewash” and “white 
man,” or it may suggest “black.” “California” may suggest 
“Pacific Ocean” and “Pacific Ocean” may suggest “Japan,” 
or “Atlantic Ocean,” or “peace.” “Autumn,” to some minds, 
may suggest trees and woodlands filled with beautiful foliage; 
to others it may suggest the end of vacation and the tedious 
grind of school. “North Pole” may suggest “ice” or “polar 
bears,” or “Dr. Cook.” 

77. A familiar exercise, illustrative of the power of asso¬ 
ciation between ideas in the mind, may always be had by 
pronouncing aloud a series of words, beginning with any¬ 
thing familiar, and letting each word suggest whatever it 
n:ay by any phase of definite relation. For example: Hat, 
straw, hay, grass, green, yellow, lower, lowest, highest, mid¬ 
dle, middleman, manager, manger, Christ-child, Christmas, 
New Year, winter, sleigh ride—and so on indefinitely. After 
once repeating such a list it will be found that it can be re¬ 
peated with equal ease and readiness, beginning at either 
end of the list. The length of the list is quite immaterial. 
One hundred ideas can be recited as easily as the above 

56 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


twenty, provided the association between them be clearly 
apparent. 

78. An unusually large yield of wheat was produced by a 
farmer whose name for some reason was not easily recalled. 
Frequent occasion having proved the desirability of remem¬ 
bering the name, the law of association was resorted to. The 
man who wished to aid his memory had a little yellow dog 
for a playfellow, when both he and the dog were young. The 
dog’s name was Bruno. The farmer’s name was Bruner. 
That name is now unforgettable. The sight of a wheat field 
or of a yellow dog instantly suggests the idea which was so 
clearly associated with them. Illustrations of the value of 
such association of ideas might be continued indefinitely. 

79. Memory is the power of the mind to retain, re-collect, 
re-present and recognize its own contents. The last two are 
spontaneous activities and do not demand special notice here. 
The power of the mind to retain ideas and impressions is a 
fixed quality, not subject to change by any process of culti¬ 
vation by “mnemonics” or memory systems of any sort. It is 
based in the physical structure of the nervous tissues. It is 
not controllable by the will. No amount of effort will change 
it. The power of the mind to recall into consciousness, into 
the doorway of attention, ideas and impressions of its past ex¬ 
perience is almost wholly dependent upon association. Constant 
repetition of an idea may make its recall appear almost spon¬ 
taneous. An idea or impression gained when the mind is at 
high tension is more readily recalled, by reason of the deeper 
and more vivid impression which it has made in conscious¬ 
ness. But the greater part of all the useful and usable knowl¬ 
edge which the life may ever know is subject to recollection 
through .some law of association, and only so. 

80. In preparing a lesson for teaching, and in acts of 
presenting truths before the minds, the efficient teacher will 
always take into consideration these fundamental conditions 
as vital and determinative factors, both in subject matter to 
be taught and process of causing pupils to know. Only those 
truths which are vital to life, to useful information and en¬ 
largement and enrichment, will be chosen for presentation. 
These truths will be carefully presented in relation or asso¬ 
ciation to familiar truths already in the mind. And oppor¬ 
tunity for expression in act or word will be provided, that 

57 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


by the pupil’s use of them the teacher may know that the 
pupil’s learning is keeping pace with the teacher’s teaching. 

81. Imagination, the power of constructive thought, the 
ideal-shaping power of the soul, is so intimately connected 
with the operations of memory that teachers ought to give 
special attention to it in this place. 

The ideas learned may be good and true. They may be 
associated together into a creditable body of knowledge. The 
soul may be filled with images of the good, the beautiful and 
the true. And, despite all of this, life may be socially worth¬ 
less, good for nothing but to think beautiful thoughts. Right 
action is the end of all true teaching. Right habits must be 
built into the nerve centers and filaments of the body. Right 
ideals must be created in the mind. And the whole life of 
mind and body must be possessed with holy aspiration to 
put the beauty and strength and power of the inner life into 
substantial reality in the world of life and death. 

82. Imagination is essential to religion—as indeed it is to 
everything else that is worth while. Visions, which imagination 
creates out of ideas in the thought-world and impressions in 
the feeling-world, are the driving, impelling and compelling 
forces of the soul. Christianity would be advanced indefi¬ 
nitely if pulpits could be emptied of visionless leadership, 
classrooms of unseeing teachers, and pews of dolessness 
which cloaks itself with social respectability. To give to a 
boy or girl a competent and adequate vision of Self as a 
ste-ward of the energies of God in behalf of men is worth 
more than oceans of moral platitudes and a skyful of pretti¬ 
ness which have no moral dynamic and spiritual dynamite 
in them. To give to adolescence a vision of the world for 
which Christ died, and of the Christ who died for the world, 
is to turn loose into society a stream of energy which will 
love good in all its forms and abhor evil in all its phases 
with the love and| hate of God in Christ. A teacher is no 
teacher of religion who fails to inspire in the imagination 
of pupils a practical vision to be Christlike in thought, in 
emotion, in word and in deed. Only by such teaching will the 
manhood and womanhood of the morrow know the higher 
happiness than the irresponsible freedom of the boyhood and 
girlhood of today. Only by such teaching will Christ cease 
to be a figure of speech and be the potent Figure of the 
living God. 


58 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Test -Questions. 

How can ideas be made living things to pupils? When do 
words become like living things? (72.) 

Illustrate from experience some of your own contents of 
memory which are “dead.” (73.) 

Mention somei things which you know you once learned 
but rejoice to have forgotten—like the rule for long divi¬ 
sion. (74.) 

How would you explain soul-enrichment to one who never 
heard of it? (75.) 

How are Laws of Association related to soul-enrich¬ 
ment? (75.) 

What ideas are suggested to your mind by the words 
crown, father, bless, glory, character, save, and religion? 

Make a list of fifty words related by some law of associa¬ 
tion, try them on yourself and others, and find out if they 
need repetition to be accurately recalled. (76.) 

Try some law of association in your class next Sunday in 
learning some vital truth. (78.) 

With what phase of memory is the teacher most concerned? 
(79.) 

Illustrate from experience some vivid impression in your 
own life. (79.) 

How can a teacher determine what is and what is not 
vital truth? (80.) 

What provision for expression of a truth can you make 
in next Sunday’s lesson? (80.) 

Is right action always the same for all grades of pupils 
and students? (81.) 

Mention some of your personal ideals. Tell how you got 
them. (81.) 

VDescribe the place of vision in religious life. (82.) 


59 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 10. 

Practical Teaching. 

I. The Teacher as an Educator. 

1. Value determined by acts of pupils. (83) 

2. Ability determined by use of suggestions. 

II. Principles of Suggestion. 

1. Based upon experience. (85) 

2. Appeal to instinct or interest. (85) 

3. Address the 'will. (85) 

4. Be positive and constructive. (85) 

5. Relation to incentive. (85) 

III. Methods of Suggestion. 

1. Allusion. (86) 

2. Suggestive questions. (86) 

3. Illustrations. (86) 

4. Indirect address. (86) 

5. A relevant ideal. (86) 


( 84 ) 


60 


CHAPTER 10. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching—Suggestion 

83. Education, according to the original use of the term, 
is a leading out, a drawing out of the mind what is in it. 
Real education is in proportion to expression of knowledge 
rather than to acquirement of scholarship; in proportion 
to what can be gotten out of a pupil, rather than to what 
can be put into him. The true end and process of education 
is, therefore, action, achievement, accomplishment. The teach¬ 
er’s value as an educator is not according to what he pre¬ 
pares and presents before the pupil’s mind, but according 
to the effective energy which the teacher can inspire in the 
pupil to translate ideas and ideals into concrete realities. 

84. The teacher should have a ready command of two 
methods of education, both of which ought to be used ac 
cording to occasion and opportunity. These methods are 
Suggestion and Question. 

The art of constructive suggestion has long been used in 
some professional activities. Great use has been made of it 
by human parasites of various kinds. It is only recently, 
indeed, that it came to have reputable standing in treating 
physical ills and infirmities, and it is proving to he, in the 
hands of good men, a most potent force for good. Even 
more recently it has come to be known among educators 
that mental suggestion is one of the most efficient and 
available of all educational processes. A few noted edu¬ 
cators, like Professor Sidis, have cut loose from all academic 
traditions, and have attempted to follow what appear to be 
the Creator’s plans for informing and enriching the minds 
of children from early infancy. The general use of this art 
by parent-teachers will surely produce not only a much 
higher order of scholarship, but it will produce an indefinitely 
better race of men and women. Intelligent parenthood will 
devote itself to child nurture with keen delight and with 
eminently satisfactory results. 

85. A few principles of education by suggestion will be 
known and practiced by every efficient teacher. Stated 
briefly, the most fundamental of the principles are as fol¬ 
lows: The idea suggested must be based upon that which 

61 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


is already known in the mind; it must appeal to latent in¬ 
stinct or to a developed center of interest; it must be 
addressed through the will to some active mental process; 
it must be positive and not negative; and it must he joined 
to some adequate incentive. 

I. A suggestive appeal to that which is already in the 
mind wakens a sense of pleasure. To lead the mind to 
new sensations and new experiences is a definite gratifica¬ 
tion, provided the experience be of pleasure rather than 
of pain. To play at random with colored blocks or dominoes 
is always agreeable to infancy; to be led into purposeful 
play increases the pleasure and joy of the child. To give 
positive meaning to the symbols on blocks or dominoes, 
to use them to definite ends, and to create out of them new 
and significant combinations only heightens the zest of the 
play. Many instances less conspicuous and public than Pro¬ 
fessor Sidis might be cited to show the ability of patient 
parenthood to teach all the fundamental computations of 
numbers in the earliest years of infancy. 

II. The instincts of play, of curiosity, of constructiveness, 
of dislcovery and adventure, of activity, and even that of 
perversity are ripe soil for tactful suggestion. Centers of 
interest which mark individual tastes and temperaments are 
equally valuable points of contact through which purpose¬ 
ful activity may bei stimulated in the mind, far beyond 
what has been considered heretofore as either possible or 
expedient. When parental affection is fortified with clear 
and full understanding of both general and particular in¬ 
stincts and centers of interest in children and this knowl¬ 
edge is energized by steadfast devotion to the arts of edu¬ 
cation by suggestion, it is not possible to foresee what as¬ 
tonishing results may follow. And parental affection is to 
be reached with knowledge of this sort more through the 
intelligent and aggressive army of Sunday School teachers 
than in any other way. 

III. Will is a power of the mind to exercise control. Ap¬ 
peal by suggestion to the ‘will of a child implies far more 
than the mere repetition of acts, which constitutes “train¬ 
ing” one of the lower animals. The human will demands 
not merely repetition of a familiar act, but it is fired with 
new energy to exercise intelligent control under new con¬ 
ditions and over new purposeful acts. Suggestion, espe- 

62 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


cially in infancy and childhood, will make its appeal to 
reason and other mental activities through the will. Rarely 
is it best to seek to inspire the undeveloped will by primary 
appeal to reason. 

IV. Negative suggestion, inhibition and prohibition of ac¬ 
tions and acts is responsible for the larger part of disobedi¬ 
ence and waywardness by children and young people. To 
tell one not to do a thing is to make affirmative appeal 
through the instinct of perversity to do it, and to do it 
at the first possible opportunity. Illustrations of this truth 
abound in private and putylic life. Few preachers and teachers 
seem yet to have grasped the chief significance of the work 
of the Great Teacher. He faced a hard religionism which 
abounded with multiplied thousands of restrictions and pro¬ 
hibitions. He faced it with a positive and constructive life. 
He committed this life to men without organization or litera¬ 
ture—simply Life, faith working by love. But like the dis¬ 
ciples who kept company with him, his later disciples have 
heaped up suggestion on suggestion as to what not to do. 
Take away from us preachers and teachers our fervent con¬ 
demnations of vice and wickedness and sin, and most of us 
would have to learn the gospel all over again. Many little 
tots who have never seen saloons, as multitudes have not, 
are taught all they know about that hateful thing by their 
Sunday-School teachers. Many young fellows get powerful 
incentives to make disastrous investigation of social vice 
through suggestive /condemnations of it in the pulpit. Life 
is never built up, made strong, clean, noble and true by 
negations and negative suggestions. If parents and min¬ 
isters of the pulpit and class-room devote themselves ex¬ 
clusively to affirmative teaching and positive suggestion, they 
will contribute indefinitely more to robust and stalwart Chris¬ 
tian faith and life. Negation is destruction; affirmation is 
construction. Evil is not to be crowded out of life by act 
of will. It is to be overcome by good. 

V. Some incentive adequate to inspire the will is an in¬ 
separable part of effective suggestion. It may be only the 
satisfaction of the instinct of play or of the desire for ap¬ 
proval. It may be the achievement of some trivial end, but 
pleasurable to the mind of the child. Right action is to be 
secured. Kirkpatrick’s Law of Motives may be applied here: 
"Be sure to secure right action, even if a low motive must 

63 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


be appealed to, but always appeal to the highest motive that 
will be effective.” 

86. Methods of Suggestion. Allusion, suggestive question, 
illustration, indirect address, and reference to a relevant ideal 
are some of the most available methods of effective sugges- 
tion. Teachers may profitably spend much time on this phase 
of lesson preparation. 

I. Allusion. A doctor’s boy, full of energy himself, was a 
hard driver. He often acted as coachman for his father. 
Once, when they were on a long trip, the father, appar¬ 
ently roused from a doze, laid his hand on the boy’s knee 
and remarked: “While we are riding, the horse is going 
afoot, isn’t he?” and with that he went to sleep again. For 
more than thirty years that boy has not once failed to recall 
that truth when he picks up the reins to drive. The veiled 
allusion—not too closely veiled, either—has not merely 
changed that boy’s attitude toward horses, but to the whole 
animal kingdom as well. 

II. Suggestive Question. A whole train of thought may 
sometimes be suggested by an interrogatory statement which 
does not require or imply any necessity for definite re¬ 
sponse. “Wouldn’t it have been fine to have been that boy 
Jesus took and held close to him while he said to all the 
big men who were there, ‘If you don’t learn to be like this 
boy you cannot even see the kingdom of heaven?’” Such 
a question obviously suggests a picture basis for a vision 
rather than a question for direct reply. 

III. Illustration. The wealth of suggestive material in 
words, symbols, actions, concrete objects and picture work 
is ready at the teacher’s hand for use in helpful affirmative 
suggestion. Impressions created, ideas caused and acts in¬ 
spired by helpful illustration are a strong lure of the teach¬ 
ing art. 

IV. Indirect Address. The saying, “Little pitchers have 
big ears,” appears in some form or other in the literature of 
nearly thirty centuries. It merely indicates the opportunity 
for education by suggestion in the way of indirect address. 
Conversations which are ovei heard always make a deeper 
impression than customary direct address. Table conversa¬ 
tion is one of the richest opportunities for Christian education. 
It is infinitely better than any school for teaching the funda¬ 
mentals of life. Animated conversation between parents or 

64 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


between parents and older children will be eagerly taken up 
and vividly recalled by the younger minds present. A noted 
teacher worked astonishing transformations in a number of 
typically bad boys by ignoring the culprit and addressing his 
conversation to other pupils. Timely and tactful use of in¬ 
direct address is a powerful instrument in teaching by sug¬ 
gestion. 

V. Adequate Incentive. The Boy Scout Movement is noth¬ 
ing more than an appeal to the military instinct and to right 
incentive to be fit for scout duty at all times. It has worked, 
and will continue to work, amazing transformations in the 
life of boys. To be able to do something within the region 
of heroic activity is an incentive continuous, present and 
potent, in shaping and determining right actions. 

87. From the foregoing suggestions it may be gathered 
that education by means of affirmative suggestion is one of 
the most profitable exercises which are open to the teacher. 
It has special value to the teacher as well as to the pupil. 
The teacher is alive to more kinds of valuable helps, finds 
them far more abundantly, is more resourceful, acquires a 
more skillful use of resources, and is growing in efficiency 
with the practice of this branch of pedagogy. At the same 
time, the pupil receives a far higher order of instruction, 
is educated in the lines of useful life, and his mind and heart 
are both enriched as he follows the teacher out into the 
larger fields of learning. There is vast joy in taking one 
or two little friends by the hand, going with them to the 
wood-lot where they have never been, inspiring them to 
find new flowers which they have never seen before, to sit 
down with them and arrange the flowers into bouquets of 
different combinations, and then to go with them while they 
carry the bouquets to those whose feet may never tread the 
open ways nor find the flowers for themselves. Larger joy 
is it to go with other minds out into the field where the flow¬ 
ers of God’s truth grow in perennial beauty, to pluck them, 
shape them into garlands, wreaths and bouquets of beauteous 
acts, and bear these acts to those whose grateful joy is the 
soul’s highest recompense. 

Test Questions. 

■Distinguish between education and instruction. (83.) 

What is your chief value to your pupils? (83.) 

65 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


What do you know of the science of Suggestive Therapeu¬ 
tics, the Emmanuel Movement, and other kindred arts of 
healing? (84.) 

Why must suggestion make its first appeal within the re¬ 
gion of experience? (85.) 

Why is a personal knowledge of pupils necessary to a 
teacher who already knows tne theories of interests and in¬ 
stincts? (85.) 

How may Sunday School teachers be of direct help to 
parents in home teaching? (85.) 

Give an illustration of suggestion addressed to the will. 
(85.) 

Which did most to shape your own character, negative or 
constructive suggestions? (8b.) 

Why is the portrayal of virtue a more proper exercise for 
pulpu and class room than the flaying of vice? (85.) 

Give a quotation from Scripture on how to overcome evil. 
(85.) 

Illustrate, from experience or observation, the use of Kirk¬ 
patrick’s law. (85.) 

Illustrate, from experience or observation, each of the five 
methods of suggestion. (86.) 

Name some advantages to the teacher of education by 
suggestion. (87.) 

How many advantages to the pupil can you conceive ris¬ 
ing from constructive and suggestive teaching? (87.) 


66 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


“A suggestion brings something before the mind less directly 
than by formal or explicit statement, as by a partial state¬ 
ment, an incidental allusion, an illustration, a question, or the 
like. Suggestion is often used of an unobtrusive statement of 
one s views or wishes to another, leaving consideration and 
any consequent action entirely to his judgment, and is hence, 
in many cases, the most respectful way in which one can con¬ 
vey his views to a superior or a stranger. A suggestion may 
be given unintentionally, and even unconsciously, as when we 
say an author has ‘a suggestive’ style.”—Standard Dictionary. 


67 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 11. 


The Human Interrogation Point. 

I. Natural Inquiry. (88) 

1. Seeking information. (88) 

2. The stupid “school habit of mind.” (89) 

3. Relation of questions and answers. (89) 

4. Interest and questions. (90) 

II. Use of Questions. 

1. Secure information. 

2. Arouse interest. 

3. Give emphasis. 

4. Clerify. 

5. Prepare further thought. 

6. Compel thought. 

7. Force the will. 


t. 


68 


CHAPTER 11. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching—Questions 

88. Many years ago a wise man observed that Intelligence 
had but three questions to ask of the universe: What, Hcww 
and Why. Those who are so fortunate as to be entrusted by 
the Creator to the companionship of childhood in home or 
school, are often amazed at the infinite variety of form these 
three questions may be made to assume. The waking con¬ 
sciousness of infancy begins its quest of prying into things. 
The wider experience of childhood only gives more scope to 
inquisitiveness. Adolescence brings, or ought to bring, a 
keener and deeper desire to know the why of the world as 
consciousness finas it. To learn by asking questions is a law 
of human life. To learn by being asked questions is quite 
another matter. To ask questions, if curiosity be put under 
moral control, is a sure pathway to knowledge and usefulness. 
To ask questions regardless of moral control develops shal¬ 
low selfishness, and makes the curious busybody a social 
nuisance. # To be asked questions in accordance with the 
natural habits of. the mind is to have an opportunity for de¬ 
velopment and growth. To be asked questions contrary to 
the natural habits of the mind is to have an opportunity to cul¬ 
tivate distaste for learning and dislike for the questioner. 

89. “A fool can ask questions which a wise man cannot 
answer,” runs the old saw. Like most sayings of the sort, 
it is not true, at least only in part. The question as it is 
in the mind of the fool who asks it is not at all the question 
the mind of the wise makes of it. When fools ask questions 
of a truly wise man he will make answer in terms of the 
fool’s intelligence and experience. It is easily possible for 
mature minds to dramatize the simple mind and read into it 
a precocity of wisdom which is not there at all. Many ques¬ 
tions inspired by childish curiosity should be answered in 
terms of childhood’s experience. It is not easy for maturity 
to put itself into the simplicity of immature years. Most 
people who try to be childlike succeed only in being childish. 

90. Regardless of book theories and academic notions, the 
natural way of teaching by questions is not to ask them, but 
so to interest the minds of elementary pupils or of advanced 

69 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


students that they will ask questions spontaneously. The 
ripest opportunity which comes at any time to a teacher is 
when a learner is prompted to say, “May I ask a question?” 
or “I would like to know.” The instructor will doubtless 
have to ask some questions. 

Sometimes the best possible answer to a question is to turn 
it about and address it, with added emphasis, to the first 
questioner; or an apt question added to the one asked at first 
may develop meanings and significances which had been 
w r holly unseen or obscure. Interest may be roused instantly 
by a question which goes at once to the heart of things that 
are vital in the minds of those questioned. The repetition 
of a question may give needed emphasis and depth of im¬ 
pression to the answer demanded or required. But back of 
all that may be said of the importance of the question to the 
teacher in teaching, there must ever lie the fundamental fact 
that the learning mind learns most and best when it is moved 
to express its own interrogations. There is much nonsense 
and academic imbecility in many methods of teaching we 
have inherited from a less skilled and more artificial age. 
Educators in schools and colleges are widely sensible of the 
general worthlessness to vital knowledge of the “recitation,” 
where teacher asks all the questions and scholars answer 
by rote—and promptly and wisely forget most of the stuff 
they were compelled to learn in order to “pass.” Discussion, 
not recitation, is the key to educational success. 

91. There is every reason why the Sunday School should 
aim not to embody many of the methods of the public school. 
Where the public school has the pupil for four hundred hours 
a year, the Sunday School has but twenty to twenty-six hours 
set apart for the teaching period. The objective of the public 
school is knowledge by instruction. The objective of the 
Sunday School is Christian character by impression. In view 
of these considerations, it is surely clear that the Sunday 
School should, least of all, incorporate into its system of 
religious education *the very processes which all leaders in 
public school work are doing their utmost to abolish. On the 
contrary, there is every reason why the Sunday School should 
have the advantage of the highest skill in the wisest teaching 
arts, among which the art of education by asking questions 
stands close to the top of the list. 

92. The natural use of questions by the mind is the basis 

70 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


upon which the efficient teacher will aim to build the system 
of questioning. And it is presupposed that there will be a 
definite system adopted or devised by the teacher. Random, 
haphazard, hit-and-miss questions will produce precisely that^ 
sort of knowledge—provided the pupil does not escape be¬ 
fore he gets any scholarship, as he has been doing too largely 
in the past. Well, then, the art of questioning will be based 
on the normal activities of the mind which is to be taught. 
The use of questions will then be mainly as follows: To se¬ 
cure information, to arouse interest, to give added emphasis, 
to clear up mental obscurity or confusion, to prepare the way 
for other questions or statements, to compel thought, to force 
conviction and to commit the will by declaration. 

I. The teacher must have clearly in mind the definite in¬ 
formation the question is designed to elicit. Every answer, 
whether right or wrong, accurate or inaccurate, must always 
be treated with honest respect and sincere courtesy. Most 
unexpected answers will sometimes be made. On investiga¬ 
tion such answers will usually be found to rise from an 
honest misunderstanding of the question by the pupil, by an 
obscurity or ambiguity in the question itself, or in an uncon¬ 
scious confusion of ideas in the pupil’s mind. To meet an 
honest effort to answer with criticism or rebuke, is to raise 
an impassable barrier between pupil and teacher. If the 
teacher knows definitely the information sought, if the ques¬ 
tion be carefully framed and clearly stated, the pupil will 
find increasing pleasure in effort to. make proper answers. 

II. A pointed question addressed to a common center of 
interest will be a quick and certain point of contact for teach¬ 
ing. Ask a class of boys, “Did you see the show last week?” 
and instantly every mind is alert and ready to follow you, 
if you know where you’re going and how to get there. 

III. Jesus’ conversation with Peter, recorded in John 21, 
is properly called the most rigid and exhaustive theological 
examination which any candidate for the Christian ministry 
has ever been called upon to pass. The last time the two 
had met Peter had just been swearing and cursing in denial 
of any acquaintance with Jesus. Jesus passed him without 
a word—he simply looked at him. Now, at their first meet¬ 
ing since Peter’s shameful collapse, Jesus looked at him and 
said, “Peter, do you love me?” That alone was enough to 
break a heart like Peter’s, and to leave indelible impress in 

71 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


his mind. But again the question was relentlessly pressed, 
“Peter, do you love me?” Twice Peter used a different word 
in his answer than Jesus used in his question, showing his 
self-abasement and utter humiliation. Changing his question, 
to conform to Peter’s answers, the inexorable question was 
again thrust into him, “Peter, do you love me?” The re¬ 
peated question gave it such emphasis as nothing else could 
possibly do. Thenceforth, except when he compromised his 
Christian integrity for the sake of supposed expediency at 
Antioch, Peter gave unfaltering witness to the love of Christ. 

IV. It not infrequently happens that a question which goes 
to the heart of things will do far more to clarify a bewildered 
or confused mind than can be done by any amount of con- 
rect statement or elaboration. “Who do men say that the 
Son of Man is?” asked Jesus of the disciples. They responded 
by telling of the various answers made by teachers of the 
people. “Who do you say that I am?” came the question 
from Jesus. In the presence of that heart-searching query 
every obscurity and confusion was banished to prepare the 
way for another question or statement. It is an exception¬ 
ally valuable instrument in the hands of a skilled and effi¬ 
cient teacher. The first of the two questions just quoted 
is a perfect illustration of a question designed to prepare the 
way for another question or for an explicit statement. 

V. “Philip, whence are we to buy bread, that these may 
eat? And this he said to prove him; for he himself knew' 
what he would do.” To provoke to thought the shrewd mind 
of Philip, Jesus gave him a business proolem to work on 
throughout the day. The church, by the way, has been up 
against the same question ever since. The net result of our 
two thousand years of thinking is, mainly, the same old 
answer, “Send the multitudes away, that they may go into 
the villages and buy themselves food.” At least the boys 
seem to find food for themselves in the villages. Is the 
church really in a desert place—and without Christ? 

VI. The next afternoon Jesus saw multitudes turning away 
from him because of his teaching. Turning to the twelve he 
said: “Will you also go away?” That he was forcing con¬ 
viction and not seeking information the reply fully proves. 

VII. Intellect may be surrendered only by a subjective act 
of the mind; so also may the emotions. The will is surren¬ 
dered only by objective action, only by translating decision 

72 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


into purposeful action, only by registering tbe subjective ac¬ 
tion of making choice in a deed which gives concrete and 
positive reality to it. Will you accept Jesus Christ as the 
Master of your life, your Saviour? Will you become a Chris¬ 
tian? Will you let Christ use your life to work out his pur¬ 
poses through you and in you? To commit the will to definite 
action for Christ is accomplished only by the acted-out answer 
to such questions. Again, by the way, much that has passed 
under the name of “conversion” breaks both with the New 
Testament Scriptures and the constitution of the human mind 
precisely at this point. To get one to promise to do a thing 
is vastly different from getting him actually to do that 
thing. 


Suggestions and Questions. 

Illustrate by example the three questions Intelligence 'is 
said to ask of the universe. (86.) 

In what way do the prominent questions, What, How and 
Why differ chiefly in infancy, childhood and adolescence? 
( 88 .) 

Which seems to be the natural way of learning by ques¬ 
tions? (88.) 

What does this suggest to you as a teacher? (88.) 

Mention some uses and abuses of asking questions. (88.) 

Illustrate the difference between being childlike and child¬ 
ish. (89.) 

Why is the spontaneous question of a pupil or student a 
rare opportunity for the teacher? (90.) 

Can you answer the above question properly in two en¬ 
tirely different ways? If so, what feature of the question 
makes that possible? Does this suggest anything of impor¬ 
tance to you as a teacher? What is it? 

Mention some defects in the recitation method of religious 
education. (90.) 

Give some reasons why Sunday School teaching ought to 
be the most efficient and most scientific to be found any¬ 
where. (91.) 

Criticize your own past method of teaching by questions. 
(92.) 


73 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


% 


Which of the eight uses of the question method mentioned 
is best adapted to your customary habit of teaching? (92.) 

Which of the eight uses of questions can you most easily 
illustrate? (92.) 

How many questions are there in the foregoing list? 

How would you classify each one of them according to its 
intended use? 

Write ten questions on this chapter, classify your questions 
and explain the teaching value of each of them. 


7 * 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


“Children have a very genius for discovery, and an insatiable 
craving for investigation and hunting. It is the seeking, rather 
thajn the finding, that appeals to them, in the pursuit of the 
various collecting crazes, which absorb so much of their play¬ 
time. I remember the disgust I felt, as a boy, when a maiden- 
aunt gave me a ready-made collection of something which 
I much enjoyed collecting for myself. She killed my desire 
to search for these things myself, by buying that ready-made 
collection, and also put an end to all interest in what I had al¬ 
ready collected. In the same way, children like to find out new 
ideas and collect knowledge for themselves. Consequently, we 
should question out, and not tell them, facts. Lead them to 
find out truth, do not supply it ready-made. Questions 
guide the pupil’s search—lead his investigation along the right 
channel—and help him to discover facts which would be unin¬ 
teresting indeed if we stated them baldly to him, instead of en¬ 
abling him to find them for himself.”—Drawbridge. 


75 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 
Ways of Asking. 

I. Forms of Questions. (93) 

1. Direct. 

2. Indirect. 

3. Leading. 

4. Hypothetical. 

II. Nature of Query. Addresses to— 

1. Memory. 

2. Judgment. 

3. Conscience. 

4. Will. 


12 . 



CHAPTER 12. 

The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching—Questions (Continued) 

93. Questions differ not only in respect to use, as noted in 
ttie preceding chapter, but also in the form in which they are 
presented. It frequently is desirable to present a truth or to 
approach it in different ways. It is possible to frame a ques¬ 
tion so as to present or approach a truth, or to elicit expres¬ 
sion of it in at least four different ways. These are by the 
use of the direct, indirect, leading and hypothetical question. 

I. The direct question is primarily a request for informa¬ 
tion. It ought always to be clear, definite and unambiguous. 
In religious teaching it should be carefully framed to draw 
out precisely the knowledge the teacher wishes to have ex¬ 
pressed. If a teacher does not know what he wants to find 
out, the pupil is quite apt to be in the same mental condi¬ 
tion. The categorical question, one which implies only af¬ 
firmation or negation and must be answered, if at all. by 
yes or no, is the least valuable, as a rule, for the teacher to 
use. Mental laziness is far more common than physical in¬ 
dolence, and a teacher who customarily uses this form of 
question encourages sportive indifference in the pupil. He 
cannot guess wropg more than once, and he is apt to enjoy 
the fun of guessing his way along. Pupils of this sort usually 
answer with an unconscious inflection of voice which would 
be an interrogation point in written work. Such pupils are a 
living condemnation of their teachers. 

One use of the categorical direct question ought to be 
noted, even though it would almost never rise in religious 
teaching. This incident will serve to illustrate it: A horse 
was in the street, having, apparently, been purposely let 
loose from the stable. The irate owner suspected a boy of the 
deed. He did not know and could not prove the lad to be 
the culprit. He was impelled to relieve his anger at the boy’s 
expense and punish him on general principles. Catching the 
youngster, he demanded, “Will you ever let that horse out 
again?” To answer either yes or no meant the admission the 
angry man desired. 

II. An indirect question implies a fact or condition wholly 
different from that contained in the direct answer of it. When 

77 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


Jesus asked the Pharisees, “What think ye of the Christ? 
Whose son is he?” the implication was so different from the 
only possible explicit answer to the query that “neither durst 
any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.” 

III. The highest use of the leading question is to commit 
the mind to a position where it must face an entirely new 
condition or situation. It was frequently used by Jesus. 
When accused of casting out demons by Beelzebub, Jesus re¬ 
torted, “And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do 
your sons cast them out?” Again, when Pilate asked him, 
“Art thou the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “Sayest thou 
this of thyself, or did others tell it thee concerning me?” 
The use of this question in religious education is most val¬ 
uable to the Christian parent, teacher or friend. 

IV. The hypothetical question states a condition and seeks 
an expression of personal opinion covering the expressed con¬ 
dition. In forcing home moral conviction this is most valu¬ 
able, for it fixes attention upon something objective to the 
mind and secures a judgment free from personal interest, as 
a ba^is for personal application. When Nathan stated the 
hypothetical case of the poor man whose only sheep was 
stolen by his rich neighbor, David was frank and forward to 
give his judgment. No other situation could have given such 
tragic setting to the personal application, “Thou art the Man!” 
Jesus’ parables of the Two Sons and of the Wicked Husband¬ 
men were but the hypothetical conditions of the questions 
based upon them. This form of question is a powerful in¬ 
strument to bring truth close to the mind and heart. 

94. Questions differ in nature as well as in use and form. 
This distinction may be based on the function of the pupil’s 
mind to which the question makes immediate appeal. It is 
readily seen that questions may be addressed to conscious¬ 
ness, to memory, to judgment, to the conscience and to the 
will. 

I. The direct question, are you a Christian? does not ad¬ 
dress itself to memory of past experience, but to conscious¬ 
ness of present personal relationship between the individual 
and his Master, Christ. Knowledge of mental, moral and 
spiritual states ot being is based upon consciousness in the 
present. Many questions of this nature do a vast educational 
work, even though the one addressed be not pressed to make 
explicit and definite answer. 


78 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


II. Two distinct phases of memory have been discussed 
in preceding chapters, and two kinds of questions addressed 
to memory are based upon them. One has to do with the 
memory of facts unrelated to life and the other with facts 
vital in the experience of the mind. If a certain man were 
asked to repeat, “Jacobus duodeim filios liabuit,” he could do 
it any time, even in his sleep. So also could he repeat an 
immense amount of stuff which has no more to do with 
his real vital knowledge than the heels of his shoes have to 
do with his appetite. About as nearly worthless as anything 
can be which is at all related to the arts of teaching and 
learning is the dead material accumulated by sheer effort of . 
memory, and capable of being recited in response to ques¬ 
tions designed to dig up and draw back into consciousness 
the chips which the soul can neither digest nor assimilate. 
Teachers of religion must know that Bible facts of every 
external sort, history, geography, institutions, chronology, 
dispensations, biography and customs are religiously valuable 
only as they exhibit or illumine God’s action in bringing sal¬ 
vation to the bodies, souls and spirits of us who are living, 
and of those who shall live because of us. 

A preacher of the Gospel of the Grace of God spent half an 
hour of a convention program teaching hungry souls to say 
the books of the Jewish Scriptures in order from Malachi to 
Genesis. Two guesses are not needed to know the nature of 
the questions that man asks in his Sunday-School class. The 
teacher or preacher, on the other hand, who acquires facility 
in asking questions addressed to the memory of vital experi¬ 
ence is a live factor in dealing with the living ideas in the 
lives of his class or congregation. His boys have neither 
time nor inclination to pull hair, pinch and stick pins into 
each other. His congregation don’t dare to go to sleep under 
his preaching, neither do they care to. 

III. Questions addressed to judgment ought to be used 
with discretion. Children ought never to be asked to ex¬ 
press moral judgments. They have none. Their only moral 
standards are those they have accepted on external authori¬ 
ty. Matters of expediency and propriety may well be raised 
with them, however, unless they have been too carefully 
shielded. Their most valuable sense of what is expedient and 
proper is gained by burns, cuts, bruises and bumps. Knowledge 
gained In that school is yital- and ywtl} yrhile. The child 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


who is never allowed to matriculate in the school of hard 
knocks is robbed of his birthright. 

Throughout the period of adolescence, on the other hand, 
questions addressed to moral judgment ought to be pressed in¬ 
sistently. The teacher need not be concerned greatly if the 
judgments expressed in response to questions are faulty, in¬ 
accurate and inadequate. The important thing is to get the 
mind in the habit of making and expressing clear moral judg¬ 
ments. The main trouble with most of the human family is 
not that they make wrong judgments, but that they haven’t 
any of their own that they are sure of. They go with the 
crowd, “tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doc¬ 
trine.” 

IV. Intimately related to, but distinct from, moral judg¬ 
ment is conscience. Here, again, teachers of elementary grades 
must use discreet restraint. Childhood has but the rudiments 
of conscience, if indeed it can be said to have any. Conscience, 
the innate voice of God passing upon the rectitude of motives 
which prompt to conduct, appears in adolescence and some¬ 
times disappears in adult life. At least it becomes defiled 
along with the mind. (Titus 1:15.) During adolescence, 
therefore, the teacher of Advanced Grades should make insist¬ 
ent address by questions to conscience in order that motives 
to action or restraint may be discerned and determined in the 
light of the mind enlightened by the truth. 

A word of explanation may be timely: Owing to confusion 
of ideas a class of conditions in religious organizations is 
sometimes created by persons who claim to have sensitive con¬ 
sciences touching some phase of conduct. Conscience has 
nothing whatever to do with conduct, but only with the mo¬ 
tives which prompt to it. Most frequently conscience is men¬ 
tioned when only personal opinion of what is right or wrong' 
is meant. In the Christian religion, human practice of the life 
of Christ, one man’s conscience has nothing to do with author¬ 
ity over the conscience of another. Neither has his opinion 
of “oughtness” any claim to the control of any other man’s 
opinion in the same matter. Recognition of these simple 
truths will save teachers and scholars from much needless con¬ 
fusion. 

V. When the teacher comes to consider the art of questions 
addressed to the will he comes to the very heart of Jesus’ 

80 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


own life practice and of his own interpretation of the vital re¬ 
lationship between man and God, and the consequent relation¬ 
ship between man and man, and man and self. Strength of 
character,—practically every element of a life successful in 
personal development and social usefulness—depends upon 
definiteness of purpose, integrity of motive, the quality of the 
incentives and impulses to which the life is made habitually 
to respond, and the promptness and thoroughness with which 
choices are made and decisions registered in positive effort to 
achieve. All this is the function of the will. To inspire the 
will to act in harmony with the will of God revealed in Jesus 
Christ is the heart and consummation of all Christian teach¬ 
ing. Questions designed, like Christ’s, to drive straight 
through to conscience and will is the privilege under God of 
the teacher of religion. 

Love, love of God and love of man, commanded in the gospel 
is not a question of personal likes, but an act and attitude of 
the will. The student’s attitude toward God, toward his neigh¬ 
bor and himself, depends on his will. When the great com¬ 
mandments of the Law were stated by the lawyer, Jesus said, 
“Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shall live.” 
Clearly this threefold love was both an attitude of mind and 
an act subject to the will, the result of conscious effort. Spir¬ 
itual knowledge depends on the will. (John 7:17.) 

With all such vital issues of time and eternity at stake, the 
nature of questions addressed to the will which the teacher 
of religion ought to employ is made clear. 


Suggestions and Questions. 

May any truth be stated in a simple declarative sentence and 
also by question? (93.) 

What form of the direct question needs to be used rarely by 
t&achers? (93.) 

May a teacher encourage pupils to indifference in study? 
How? (93.) 

• Illustrate the indirect question. (93.) 

If anyone were asked to teach a class without any prepara¬ 
tion whatever, ought they to do it? What would you do in 
such a case? (93.) 


81 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


Find a hypothetical question and make another different 
from it. (93.) 

In what way are Bible facts related to religious life. (94.) 

What Bible truths do you know that might be called curious 
but are wholly unimportant? (94.) 

Illustrate a proper question addressed to judgment of pupils 
in the Primary, Junior, Intermediate and Senior grades. (94.) 

May conscience be educated by the use of questions which 
impel it to definite action? How? (94.) 

Would you try to teach the difference between conscience 
and moral judgment to infants and children? Why? 

Give three questions, each addressed to a different phase of 
the activity of the will. (94.) 

In what way ought questions addressed to the will of infants 
or children to differ from those addressed to adolescents or 
adults? 


82 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


“Genius is nothing but childhood perpetuated into old age. 
And the best, the highest service that can possibly be ren¬ 
dered, is the service and the ministry to childhood. 

“The true teacher can go through the highest and most con¬ 
summate mastery of expert subjects, and make them interest¬ 
ing to a little child. Anyone who ever saw Professor Huxley 
talk to his own children would realize that there was not a 
thing that that great mind k,new in science that he could not 
make fascinating to the little child. And so in religion. Mas¬ 
tery in the knowledge of religion, sympathy with Christ, that 
makes us really interested in his mind and will, is best tested 
by capacity to lead and minister to childhood. 

“SSo that the child is leading us again, as never before. And 
if some methods of thought change in the world, if some of us 
lose a little confidence in the ideas that have guided us hith¬ 
erto, there is one test that is sure, because it comes right up 
from the heart of nature, and is the criterion by which every 
other truth soever in the world must forever be tested: whether 
or not it ministers to the more complete growth and maturity 
of childhood.”—Hall. 


83 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 13. 

Definite Conclusions. 

I. The Teaching Personality Must Be Characterized By— 

1. Genuineness. 

2. Self-control. 

3. Decision. 

4. Enthusiasm. 

5. Earnestness. 

6. Cheerfulness. 

7. Steadfastness. 

8. Sympathetic insight. 

9. Lovableness. 

10. Love. 


84 


CHAPTER 13. 

Some General Principles 

96. In view of the well nigh infinite importance of the work 
committed to the teacher of religion, too much emphasis can¬ 
not possibly be given to those elements of character and of 
social adaptability which constitute the teacher’s personality. 
The intimacy of contact and companionship between the Sun¬ 
day-School teacher and his pupils, the nature of the ideals 
which are to be imparted, the quality of life in the pupils 
which is at once the salvation of the pupil and the teacher’s 
largest compensation, unite to give a divine emphasis to the 
need the teacher in the Sunday School must ever hold in mind 
concerning his own personality. Some of the more important 
of these vital qualifications are as follows: 

I. Genuineness.—Only those who have consciously faced 
the fact can realize the ceaseless pressure which rests upon 
preachers and religious teachers to appear to be something 
different than they really are. But no class of toilers among 
men face the same necessity for perfect sincerity, for a perfect 
correspondence between what they are as God knows them 
and what they appear to be as congregation or class know 
them. It is so humanly easy to cover up one’s self with a 
veneer of suavity, of manufactured smiles, of pretended in¬ 
terest and of ingathering mechanical and professional ways. 
Blessed is the mortal who has never learned the deceptions 
of polite society. Fortunate, indeed, is the preacher or teacher 
who can be as simply natural and genuine in public work 
as in the most private intercourse. 

II. Self-Control.—“He that is slow to anger is better than 
the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh 
a city.” The conduct of the Sunday School or of a class de¬ 
mands a large element of control. He who has not learned 
to control himself can never control others. Quietness of 
voice, steadiness of feature, repose of manner and definite¬ 
ness of action are the marks of self-control and of personal 
culture, such as every public servant of religion must seek to 
embody. 

III. Decision.—Wavering indecision, weak and vacillating 
indefiniteness are wholly out of place in the classroom. To 

85 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 

have a definite starting point, a definite route and definite 
terminal facilities are some of the first and most conspicuous 
needs for both the preacher and teacher in their public work. 
To meet the emergencies which are ever rising in public as¬ 
semblies, definiteness of judgment and decision in action are 
marks of leadership, the effect of which is tremendous in those 
who are being led. 

IV. Enthusiasm.—It is well known that human emotions 
are contagious. None of them, perhaps, is more immediately 
and obviously conveyed than is honest and sincere enthusiasm 
in any line of activity. It used to be the fashion in some re¬ 
ligious circles to manufacture enthusiasm by a great show of 
emotionalism. Zeal or excitement not balanced by knowledge 
is mere fanaticism. A pretended enthusiasm or mechanical 
vivacity of body and animation of mind are downright hypoc¬ 
risy. The one secret of enthusiasm in religious work is, first 
or all, intelligent understanding of the work to be performed, 
a giving of one’s self wholly to the performance of that work 
in the most efficient manner possible, and an impassioned ef¬ 
fort to bring the desired ends to pass. No religious worker 
has more reason to be most truly and consciously enthusiastic 
in his work than have the Sunday-School teacher and superin¬ 
tendent who share with the pastor of the church the Cure of 
Souls. 


V. Earnestness.—Unqualified faith, sturdy belief in the 
reality and vitality of the subject matter taught, and of the 
in any line of activity. It used to be the fashion in some re¬ 
ligion a quality of earnestness which properly enters into no 
other phase of life or its activities. The listless indefiniteness 
and slipshod work of some teachers is merely a public expres¬ 
sion by them of their disbelief in Christ and in the realities 
of the Christian religion. No teaching which can possibly be 
done by any teacher in any branch of knowledge has back of 
it and in it the assurance which the teaching of religion has. 
“My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish 
that whereunto I have sent it.” This is not prophecy, but the 
expressed determination of Omnipotence. If there be any in¬ 
centive known to the human mind at all competent to arouse 
in a teacher the greatest depth of earnestness, certainly it is 
the assurance that God is himself in the work, and that if the 


86 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


work be done in accordance with his creation and revelation, 
the results of it shall be immeasurable in time and space. 

VI. Cheerfulness.—The subject-matter of God’s goodness 
and grace is the most joyous, hopeful and happy message that 
can possibly be delivered by one mind to another. By what 
right does preacher or teacher, bearing a burden of such in¬ 
finite joy, carry into the class room a countenance as doleful 
as if part of the family were dead and the rest of them were 
expected to die next week? The goodness of God is the hope 
of the soul. The gladness pf God is the soul’s high heritage. 
The joy and triumph of the gospel constitute the burden of the 
religious teacher’s task. The class room where the religion 
of Jesus Christ is taught ought to be, by physical adornment, 
equipment and the atmosphere created by the leaders of schools 
and classes, the brightest, happiest, most cheerful and the most 
delightsome place that human hands and hearts can in any 
way contrive. 

VII. Patience.—No one quality, perhaps, is more frequently 
or more surely demanded of religious teachers and religious 
leaders than is that of a sympathetic restraint of their own en¬ 
ergies, and constant and even tiresome repetition of truth 
taught, an unfailing endurance of untoward conditions, and a 
quiet, persistent sticktoitiveness. Patience is all of these. 
With all the high hopes and aspirations of a mature life, with 
habits more or less fixed, and the culture of experience em¬ 
bedded in the life, the teacher goes from prayerful preparation 
to face noisy and frivolous immaturity and inexperience. 
To dominate this mass of energy, reduce it to attention, hold 
the conscious powers of the soul fixed until a message is de¬ 
livered, and then to see that the message delivered has been 
clearly understood and thoroughly grasped by the minds in¬ 
structed—such a work has need to be done with a patience 
born of God. 

VIII. Human Insight.—The successful teacher must know 
the pupils better than they know themselves. The teacher 
must know both the present capabilities and limitations of the 
minds with which he works. Furthermore, he must realize 
the meaning for the future of the various tendencies manifest 
in the pupils, and know this far more clearly than is possible 
to them. For no one thing, perhaps, in its journey from the 
cradle to the grave, does the human heart cry out with deeper 

87 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


yearning than to be understood, appreciated, known. “God 
give all the grace to stand it to be misunderstood,” was the 
frequent prayer of a kindly saint who was guiding Christian 
leaders to the higher regions of their work. The affectionate, 
personal interest which the teacher takes in the individual 
pupils composing the class is the teacher’s greatest opportunity 
to bear unto those human hearts the messages of God. 

IX. Lovableness.—The active forthputting of affectionate 
interest by the teacher is only one part of the obligation of 
Christian love. To make one’s self lovable, to keep one’s self 
fit to be loved, to embody in increasing measure those quali¬ 
ties which fit one for the confidence of intimate affection, is a 
necessary part of a religious teacher’s personal equipment. 
Although it is so largely neglected as a vital feature in teach¬ 
ing, it is. nevertheless, one of the most important and funda¬ 
mental elements of the personality which the Sunday-School 
teacher has need to cultivate. Particularly true is this with 
teachers in the elementary grades and in the intermediate 
period. That human being is fortunate, indeed, who can win 
and hold the pure affection of boyhood and girlhood. The 
opportunity of the teacher is widely increasing when that 
teacher can win and deal, as with a sacred trust, with the con¬ 
fidence, the self-examinations and self-expressions, which early 
adolescence yearns to make. 

X. Love.—'“Now abideth faith, hope and love; and the 
greatest of these is love.” The teacher of religion, most of all, 
has obligation to know clearly and to embody sincerely this 
highest and most abiding quality which links man and God 
together and man with his fellow-men in God-like fellowship. 
Christian love, agape, has nothing to do with our natural 
likes and dislikes. The conjugal affections and the natural 
ties of kinship which constitute the basis of human love or 
affection or friendship, are not integral parts of Christian 
love. These are not at all controlled by the will. Christian 
love, on the contrary, is wholly and exclusively an act of will 
and an attitude of mind dependent upon a continuous similar 
act. This alone makes it humanly possible to obey Christ’s 
command to love our enemies, and to fulfill the new com¬ 
mandment which he gave unto his followers. This Christian 
love ignores all differences of sex, of race, of culture and of 
economic conditions. To this love, indeed, there is no male 

88 fj 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


and female, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. The accidents 
of life are wholly ignored and lost from sight. The perfect 
manifestation of it is at the cross whereon the Saviour prayed 
for them who knew not what they were doing. When teach¬ 
ers of religion love their pupils as Christ loves them; wheh 
they withhold nothing in their power to promote their help 
and uplift; when they bestow their best in time and energy for 
the lives of those they teach; then, indeed, will the teaching 
of the Christian religion be lifted out of drudgery and become 
a heavenly task full of the love of Cod. 

Suggestions and Questions. 

Does the teacher possess any advantages over the parent 
in coming close to the inner life of boys and girls? (96.) 

How can a teacher cultivate genuineness before the class? 

(96.) 

Does Galatians 5:22 suggest any particular hope or oppor¬ 
tunity for the Christian teacher? (96.) 

How would you distinguish a firmness and quickness of de¬ 
cision from mere combative stubbornness? (96.) 

Is patience an active energy or a passive virtue? (96.) 

What elements are vital to genuine enthusiasm? (96.) 

How much less in earnest, would you say, may a teacher 
properly be than is the Christ for whom the teacher teaches? 
(96.) 

Does 2 Cor. 5:20 suggest anything to you concerning a teach¬ 
er’s necessary earnestness? 

Mention some advantages of hearty good nature as a teach¬ 
ing asset. (96.) 

What word is regularly shown in the margin of the Ameri¬ 
can Revision of the New Testament to be used as equivalent 
to patience? 

Do you consider pedagogical psychology an important study 
for teachers? Why? (96.) 

Illustrate from your experience the power of a lovable teach¬ 
er. (96.) 

Why is Love an indispensable quality for a Christian teach¬ 
er? (96.) 


89 


CHAPTER OUTLINE. 14. 

Tongue and Pen. 

I. The Voice— 

1. The Home School—universal. 

2. The Church School—must become universal. 

3. The Church College—for leadership. / 

4. The Church Seminary—for special leadership. 

5. Christian Associations. 

II. The Printed Page— 

1. Christian Literature. 

2. Christian Art. 

3. Christian Music. 


90 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER 14. 

Modem Educational Agencies 

97. The Home School. Renewed emphasis is being laid 
in all religious circles on the fundamental importance of 
the home as a factor in the religious culture of childhood. 
Too long have Americans assumed that teachers in the em¬ 
ploy of the state or the church should supply the require¬ 
ments of religious culture. From every standpoint the parents 
and other members of the family are the most important 
teachers, religiously, which the child can ever have. Parents 
commonly say, “Oh, I can’t teach. I don’t know enough.” 
But they do teach, in spite of this. By virtue of their parent¬ 
hood they are more important teachers than their child will 
ever find in any school elsewhere. As the infant life wakes 
in its darkness of unconscious helplessness the atmosphere 
of the home, words, deeds and conditions fixed by parents 
are of fundamental and far-reaching importance in the sub¬ 
sequent development of the child’s life. Heredity in the 
physical world, the child’s equipment of cells and tissues 
is the least important part of heredity. The child’s heritage, 
the moral and spiritual conditions in the home, is the most 
important part of all of its share of the world into which 
it is born. The church has no obligation greater than that 
which looks to the equipment of parents, both of the present 
and the next generation, for intelligent, purposeful, whole¬ 
some discharge of the educational obligations on parenthood. 

98. The Sunday School. Next to the home the most im¬ 
portant educational institution of religious faith and life 
is the Sunday School, of which the pastor, and his first 
assistant, the superintendent, are the joint head. Under them, 
w r ith little or much machinery of organization, the teachers 
who come to bring the messages of the living God to in¬ 
fancy, childhood, adolescence and maturity are the supremely 
important educational agencies. The strength or weakness 
of the Sunday School, as a school, is determined by the 
pastor and the superintendent. The strength or weakness 
of class efficiency and religious culture is determined by 
the preparation of the teachers to be God’s active messen¬ 
gers, “accurate in delivering the message of truth.” 

91 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


99. The Christian College. The first decade of the pres¬ 
ent century witnessed most marvelous changes in religious 
education in the various colleges supported by the various 
denominations. The general educational board established by 
Mr. Rockefeller and the Carnegie pension fund became im¬ 
portant and powerful factors to standardize the academic 
college work, and to reinforce the teaching done by these 
institutions. There has been no time in American life when 

. . . the place of the Christian college, supported by 

Christian people, filled by Christian professors, and turning 
back into the church life a stream of young Christian man¬ 
hood and womanhood . . . when the place of the Chris¬ 

tian college is more important, strategic, urgent and indis¬ 
pensable than at the present time. 

100. Theological Seminaries. Within five years from gradu¬ 
ation most ministers have discovered that the theological 
seminary of traditional curriculum and processes is about 
the poorest place on earth to fit a preacher to discharge 
the obligations which rest upon the modern minister. It 
has always been the fashion heretofore in seminary life 
to train preachers in a vast mass of stuff in which no¬ 
body but bookish preachers had any vital interest. Semi¬ 
nary professors commonly instructed the young preachers 
under their tutelage to stay out of the Sunday School. This 
largely accounts for the fact that the Sunday School has 
splendidly stayed outside the sphere of the preacher’s in¬ 
fluence. Pressure is now being brought to bear upon theo¬ 
logical seminaries as well as upon the Christian colleges 
to lay special emphasis upon equipping their young men for 
the task of superintending and supervising the teaching of 
the modern Sunday School and the Christian home. 

101. Christian Associations. The Young Men’s Christian 
Association and the Young Women’s Christian Association 
have come to be most valuable factors in religious edu¬ 
cation. As a part of their splendid equipment they are 
reaching out beyond academic instruction in the Bible, and 
are covering helpfully a large portion of the field of re¬ 
ligious culture and preparation for social service. Many of 
their secretaries have come to be specialists in the line of 
religious education for the young men and young women in 
their charge. 

93 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


102. The Christian Journal. The grading of Christian lit¬ 
erature for infancy, boyhood and girlhood, adolescence, and 
maturer life, both in the home and outside of it, is a most im¬ 
portant feature of modern religious education. The promul¬ 
gation of the gospel message is limited to two agencies, the 
human voice and the printed page. In view of this fact it is 
quite obvious that the church of our Lord has been slowest 

,and least wise of all human associations in making adequate 
use of the printed page purely for cultural purposes. There 
are multiplied homes represented in the church membership 
into which no religious paper ever enters. Because of this 
fact largely the religious education of such homes and the 
members of such families is at the lowest stage of efficiency 
and social value. Every Christian student should be thor¬ 
oughly alive to the fundamental value of sane and wholesome 
Christian journalism as a factor in the progress of Christian 
civilization and the culture of Christian hearts. 

103. Art. The refining influence and cultural effect of 
works of art in the home, church, and school have been sadly 
neglected by the church. The prostitution of art by image 
worship led many of the church fathers to look upon art as 
worldly and base. Every parent or teacher who knows the 
eagerness with which children and many of their elders 
scan pictures is compelled to realize the hunger of the mind 
for works of art, and to realize the immense possibility for 
imparting religious ideas and shaping religious ideals through 
this educational agency. 

104. Music. The prostitution of music, both words and 
tunes, in religious service is on the wane. Even those who 
have slight musical ability or appreciation have been led to 
deplore the destructive and disorganizing effects of much of 
that which has passed, especially in the Sunday schools, for 
religious music. The splendid hymns which have come down 
through many generations have proved their universal appeal. 
The wealth of songs expressive of the highest religious emo¬ 
tions of life in all its stages from infancy to maturity are now 
available to Sunday School authorities. Meaningless jingles, 
noisy instrumentation, and the furious clamor of loud sound¬ 
ing tunes has passed its climax. Worship, devotion, and the 
cultural realization in thought, feeling and act of the father¬ 
hood of God, the Sonship of Christ, the Brotherhood of man, 

93 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


our common humanity under one Saviour—these are the ideas 
and ideals which will forevermore prevail in the use of this 
great agency of religious uplift. 

1.—SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS. 

Why are parents supremely important teachers? (97) 

How can a training class help parents? 

What is your church doing to raise the standard of intelli¬ 
gent Christian parenthood? 

What suggestions can you make to further a general move¬ 
ment in this country for better parenthood? 

Is your Sunday School a real educational agency in your 
community? 

What is the educational function of pastor and superintend¬ 
ent in the Sunday School? (98) 

Are Sunday School teachers real educators? (98) 

What are your church colleges doing to train leaders for 
efficient leadership in Sunday School work? 

How many young men and women are your church and Sun¬ 
day School helping to educate for Christian service? 

How many young men from your school are being encour¬ 
aged to enter the ministry or other line of Christian service? 

Are you doing all that you ought to do to support Christian 
colleges and theological seminaries? 

Since Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. work is practically im¬ 
possible in cities of less than 20,000 population, what obligation 
rests upon the Sunday School in all smaller cities and com¬ 
munities? (101) 

Does your preacher and church membership have a con¬ 
science in relation to Christian literature? (102) 

How can Christian journalism be made a more worthy edu¬ 
cational influence in your community? 

Does your school have a conscience concerning the equip¬ 
ment of your primary and junior departments? What is the 
result? (108) 

How are you doing your part in raising the educational 
standard of church music? 

Is your Sunday School music educational? (104) 

Are you raising the educational standard of it? (104) 

How is your music graded? 


94 


APPENDIX 


SUGGESTED OUTLINES FOR TEACHERS. 
CHAPTER 1. 

Page 4. 

I. Human Being. 

1. Living Body. 

a. Structure—anatomy. 

b. Function—physiology. 

c. Care—hygiene. 

2. The human mind. 

a. Intellect, to be informed. 

b. Emotions, to be enriched. 

c. Conscience, to be enlightened. 

d. Will, to be strengthened. 

Note.—The teacher of religion must be prepared to help 
from 'without and to inspire intelligent action from within to 
make of each human being all that the mind of God and man 
working together can make of that individual. 

I. The Graded Sunday School has,— 

1. Graded worship, adapted to the emotions. 

2. Graded lessons, adapted to the intellect. 

3. Graded work, adapted to the will. 

4. Graded teachers, adapted to the pupils. 

5. Graded pupils. 

Note.—Any system of gradation which begins by classifying 
the pupils and which takes no note of graded teachers, graded 
worship, prayers, songs, and lessons, is formal and mechanical, 
and fore-doomed to failure. 

I. The Dining-Table. 

1. Processes that lead up to it. 

a. Selection of food according to taste and needs 

of those to be fed. 

b. Preparation of food to make it palatable and 

wholesome. 

c. Service designed to whet the appetite adds zest 

to eating. 

d. Plant pleasant and alluring memories. 

95 



RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


2. Processes that go out from the dining-table. 

a. New strength from new food. 

b. New energy for new tasks. 

c. New inspiration. 

d. New courage born of consciousness of strength 

renewed. 

II.—Note.—Follow the above outline throughout, using truth 
for food and the class-room for the dining-table. 

CHAPTER 2. 

Page 10. 

I. Education. 

1. Development of all the Powers of the Mind. 

2. Establishing perfect mastery of mind over itself and 

the body. 

3. Establishing right relations between the individual— 

a. Inwardly toward God. 

b. Outwardly toward society. 

II. Processes of Education. 

1. Inculcation—treading in—repetition — deep impres¬ 

sion. 

2. Experience—conscious history of individual mind. 

3. Impression—creative ideal in the soul. 

4. Expression—translation of internal energy into out¬ 

ward fact. 


I. Each Life Journey Begins In— 

1. Darkness. 

2. Helplessness. 

3. Inexperience. 

4. Innocence. 

II. Each Life Journey May End In— 

1. Light. 

2. Helpfulness. 

3. Proved energy. 

4. Purity. 

Note.—The teacher is to be the guide, helping each natural 
power of the pupil’s mind to make this journey safely and 
surely. 


96 



THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER ?. 


I. Growth. 


Page 14. 


1. Natural objects grow— 

* a. Uniformly. 

b. Regularly. 

c. To a fixed standard. 

d. Give place to decay. 


2. The human mind grows—- 

a. By stages. 

b. Irregularly. 

c. To indefinite power. 

d. Knows no decay. 


I. Teacher Training. 

1. Trains the teacher in— 

a. Character. 

b. Faith. 

c. Sympathy. 

d. Will. 

e. Conscience. 

f. Spiritual power. 

2. Brings the teacher— 

a. Usefulness. 

b. Self-confidence. 

c. Social respect. 

d. Profound friendships. 

I. Teachers Rank In Importance. 

1. Mother. 

2. Father. 

3. Sunday School teacher. 

4. Other children. 

5. School teacher. 

6. Preacher. 

s 

I. Teacher Training Involves— 

1. Christian character. 

2. Teaching skill. 

3. Christian scholarship. 

97 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


I. There Are Three Classes of Studies. 

1. “Material” studies. 

2. “Tool” studies. 

3. “Problem” studies. 

Note.—Fit these studies to the three stages, childhood, 
adolescence, and maturity, and show their relation to the three 
elements of education, time, book, and association elements. 


CHAPTER 4. 

Page 20. 

I. Preparation. 

1. Of lesson material. 

2. Of pupil material. 

3. Of teacher’s own mind. 

I. Pupil Material. 

1. Bodies turbulent with energy. 

2. Minds restless with inquiry. 

3. Desires, fixed on doing. 

Note.—This material must be made receptive before the 
teacher can teach anything. Preparation of “pupil material’' 
is often the teacher s hardest task. 

I. Method—Expression of Ability—A Way to do Things. 

1. Method must express. 

a. The teacher’s own life. 

b. Resourcefulness. 

c. Adaptability to conditions. 


98 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER 5. 

Page 26. 

I. Self-Knowledge. 

1. Based in— 

a. Consciousness. 

b. Observation. 

c. Reflection. 

2. Depends upon— 

a. Intelligent self-examination. 

b. Friendly criticism. 

c. Work actually done. 

I. Christ is the Key to Self-Knowledge. 

1. For in him is— 

a. God’s idea of man. 

b. Man’s Ideal of his self made perfect. 

c. God’s estimate of the woxth of individual and 

collective man. 

Note.—Until man sets God’s esteem upon himself, his self- 
knowledge is inadequate, and he is incapable to love his neigh¬ 
bor as himself, and to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, 
and strength. 

I. Self Knowledge of— 

1. Individuality. 

a. Conscious relation to one’s self. 

•b. Distinct powers of the individual, 
c. Relationship to God in his creation. 

2. Personality. 

a. Self in social relations. 

b. Social capabilities. 

c. . Social adaptabilities. 


99 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


CHAPTER 6. 

Page 32. 

I. Religion Distinguished From— 

1. Morals. 

2. Ethics. 

3. Humanitarian sympathies and antipathies. 

I. Religion Must Include— v 

1. The whole man. 

a. Intellect. 

b. Emotions. 

c. Will. 

d. Conscience. 

2. An idea of God. 

a. Christ’s idea. 

b. An idea created by the individual. 

c. Some historic idea conceived by man. 

I. The Bible is a Divine Interpretation of Human Experience. 

1. Hexateuch,—a religious interpretation of early Jew¬ 

ish experiences. 

2. Historical books, a religious interpretation of middle 

Jewish history. 

3. Psalms and Prophets, a religious interpretation of 

middle and later Jewish history. 

4. Gospels, a religious interpretation of the human ex¬ 

periences of the Son of God. 

5. Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse, religious interpreta¬ 

tion of human experience under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit. 

6. Missions, religious interpretation of men and institu¬ 

tions doing God’s will. 

I. Teaching Religious Truth. 

1. Taking one living idea at a time from the mind and 
so planting it in another mind that it will grow 
into the image of God’s own Son. All such living 
ideas center in Christ as,— 

a. Living. 

b. Creating. 

c. Nurturing. 

d. Revealing. 

e. Serving. 

f. Impelling. 

g. Re-creating. 


100 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER 7. 

\ 

Page 40. 

1. Attention is,— 

1. THe focus of consciousness. 

2. The alert and receptive powers of the soul. 

3. An absolute pre-requisite to teaching. 

I. The Whole Teaching Process. 

1. Prepare truth ready to present. 

2. Secure attention. 

3. Attract the attention toward the prepared truth. 

4. Plant the trutn. 

5. Provide opportunity for its growth. 

6. Trust the Spirit of God to give it increase. 

I. Teaching and Not Teaching. 

1. Preaching is, .which?.when? 

2. Lecturing is, .when? 

3. Talking is not, .when? 

4. Story-telling is not, .when? 

5. Illustration by concrete objects is, .when? 

.what? 


101 









RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 




CHAPTER 8. 

Page 48. 

I. Education Formerly Based on Effort 

1. Implies— 

a. Positive control by the will. 

b. Definitely directed mental energy. 

c. A thirst for knowledge. 

d. A contempt for scholarship. 

II. Modern Education or Interest Implies— 

1. Diversity of tastes and temperaments. 

2. Variety of abilities and tendencies. 

3. Development of the natural powers through,— 

a. Instinct. 

b. Relevant incentive. 

I. Attention May Be,— 

1. Voluntary—an act of the will. 

2. Involuntary—response to interest or instinct. 

3. Expectant—intuitive anticipation. 

Note.—For some purposes and at some stages of the educa¬ 
tional process voluntary attention is of the highest value. For 
pupils of the elementary grades and in most secondary schools 
involuntary attention is the key to successful teaching. 


/ 


102 




THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


« 



CHAPTER 9. 

Page 54. 

Note.—Ask each woman in the class to bring with her a 
sample of shell-stitch needlework. Take the most conspicuous 
piece of interwoven material for illustration. Let the men 
present and such women as have not brought their own piece 
of shell-stitch with them keep their vision fixed on the piece 
used for class illustration. Show how any one link reaches 
out in many different directions, is interwoven and interlaced 
with every other link in the whole piece. A better dead illus¬ 
tration of the inter-relation of living ideas in the mind can 
scarcely be obtained. 

1. The Laws of Association 'Depend Upon,— 

1. Likeness or unlikeness. 

2. Continuity in time. 

3. Contiguity in space. 

Note.—Make easy use of the illustration in paragraph No. 77. 

Note.—The laws of association are of value exclusively in 
recollection. They have nothing to do with retention, re-pre¬ 
senting, or re-cognition. 


✓ 


103 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY m 


CHAPTER 10. 

Page 60.. 


I. Contagious Emotions. 

1. Cheerfulness. 

2. Confidence. 

3. Fear. 

4. Affection. 

II. Contagious Acts of the Will. 

1. Determination. 

2. Purpose. 

3. Incentives. 

4. Quickness of decision. 

III. Pleasure and Pain. 

1. Thoughts, emotions, and acts of the will which in¬ 

spire pleasure are positive instruments of educa¬ 
tion. 

2. Thoughts, emotions, and acts of the will fraught with 

pain are negative educational tools. 

IV. Of the three functions of the mind, intellect, emotions, and 

will, the last has most need to be carefully and persist¬ 
ently educated. 

I. Illustrate the Effects of Negative Suggestions or Com¬ 
mands. 

1. Infancy. (Both sexes.) 

2. Childhood. (Both sexes.) 

3. Adolescence. 

4. Adult Life. 

a. In the home. 

b. In business. 

c. At play. 

I. Indirect Address. 

1. Illustrate the value of table conversation. 

a. Impart information. 

b. Arouse ambition. x 

c. Create enthusiasm. 

d. Quicken ideals. 


104 


THE MODERN 8UNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER 11. 

Page 68. 

I. Questions Characteristic of,— 

1. Early childhood. 

a. What is this? 

b. What is it for? 

c. Where did it come from? 

2. Boyhood and girlhood. 

a. Why cant I do this? 

b. How did you do that? 

c. How can we make something else? 

3. Adolescence. 

a. Why am I not understood and appreciated? 

b. What is the reason at the bottom of my life? 

c. What ought I to do? 

I. The School Habit of Mind. 

1. Listless. 

2. Stupid indifference. 

3. Uninterested, waiting to be questioned. 

Note.—Who is to blame for the difference between the child 
out of school, and the child in school? 

I. Questions Must Appeal To,— 

1. What is in the mind. 

2. Something suggested by instinct or interest. 

3. Some pleasurable exercise. 

II. Questions Are Impressive According To,— 

1. Their content. 

2. The one addressed. 

3. Repetition. 

4. Consciousness appealed to. 


105 


RELIGIOUS PEDAGOGY IN 


CHAPTER 12. 

Page 76. 

I. Hypothetical Appeal To,— 

1. Imagination. 

2. Reason. 

3. Judgment. 

4. Conscience or will. 

I. Are You a Christian? This Appeals to,— 

1. Memory of what one has been. 

2. Judgment of what one ought to be. 

3. Conscious relationship to Christ what one is. 

I. The Mind is Concerned With,— 

1. Facts of consciousness. 

2. Facts of history. 

3. The translation of facts of history into facts of con¬ 

sciousness. 

Note.—Facts of history unrelated to facts of consciousness 
are always wholly irrelevant to religious life and faith. 

I. Adolescence Is the Period of the Awakening of,— 

1. Reason. 

2. Conscience. 

3. Individual will. 

4. Independent judgment. 

5. Life joys and purposes. 

Note.—The questions addressed to young men and women 
should bear on one or more of these points for effective 
teaching. 

I. The Complete Man Consists of,— 

1. Intellect, informed. 

2. Emotions, responsive. 

3. Will, constructive and prompt. 

4. Conscience, enlightened. 

I. Only such a Well Founded Mind May Assume Self-Con¬ 
trol of,—• 

1. Appetites, both physical and mental. 

2. Desires, sensuous and spiritual. 

3. Affections, both intuitive or natural, and emotional or 

spiritual. 


106 


THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER 13. 

Page 84. 

I. Ttie Teacher’s Self. 

1. Genuine. 

2. Self-control. (Galatians 5:22, 23.) 

3. Alert. 

II. The Teacher Prepared to Teach. 

1. Sympathetic to pupils’ interests. 

2. Quick to select vital truths. 

3. Resourceful in presenting truths to pupils. 

4. Affectionately persistent. 

III. The Teach'er Teaching. 

1. Thoroughly alive to each member of the class. 

2. Ready command of the results of study. 

3. Resourceful in meeting emergencies. 

4. Skilled in starting and stopping the teaching process. 


107 


. . ^ 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Chapter I. The New Science. 5 

Chapter II. Definitions of Teaching.,. 11 

Chapter III. Principles of Soul Nurture. 15 

Chapter IV. The Teacher’s Use of Knowledge. 21 

Chapter V. The Teacher’s Knowledge of Self. 27 

Chapter VI. The Teacher’s Knowledge of * Religious 

Truth. 33 

Chapter VII. The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching. 41 

Chapter VIII. The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching— 

Attention. 49 

Chapter IX. The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching— 

Laws of Association. 55 

Chapter X. The Teacher's Knowledge of Teaching— 

Suggestion . 61 

Chapter XI. The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching— 

Questions I. 69 

Chapter XII. The Teacher’s Knowledge of Teaching— 

Questions II . 77 

Chapter XIII. Some General Principles. 85 

Chapter XIV. Modern Educational Agencies. 91 

Appendix—Suggested Outlines for Teachers and Class 

Leaders. 95 


108 


















Bible School Supplies 

OF EVERY DESCRIPTION 


Does Your School Need 

Song Books? 

Maps and Charts? 

Birthday Banks? 

Class Books? 

Other Records? 

Reward Cards? 

Blackboards ? 

Class and Reward Pins? 

Bibles and New Testaments? 

Collection Envelopes ? 

Cradle Roll Supplies? 

Home Department Supplies? 

Helps for Teachers? 

Helps for Pupils? 


Anything and Everything 
for the School 


WE ARE HEADQUARTERS 


Christian Board of Publication 

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 


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